Bolivian constituent assembly set back

The elected assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution has fallen into coma, along with a prominent indigenous leader of the governing Movement to Socialism (MAS) party, Román Loayza, who is in critical condition after a freak accident that occurred during a session that approved the assembly's rules of debate–a decision that is threatening to divide the country. In the wee hours of the morning on Sept. 1, after a marathon session, the constituent assembly decided that constitutional reforms and the rules of debate would be approved by simple majority, rather than the two-thirds vote that the conservative opposition parties had been pushing for. The representatives of the right-wing Podemos and Nationalist Revolutionary Movement parties and of the center-left National Unity party walked off the assembly floor, leaving the delegates of the MAS and eight allied citizen groups, who hold a majority of the 255 seats on the assembly. Podemos sent letters to the Organization of American States and the European Union asking them to send observers to monitor the constituent assembly. Civic groups in the wealthy eastern provinces of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija and the right-wing opposition parties were planning an emergency meeting to organize protests aimed at keeping the indigenous majority in the assembly from adopting all decisions by a vote of 50 percent plus one. Evo Morales, Bolivia's first-ever indigenous president, has called on social organizations to defend the assembly's decision to grant itself powers that supersede those of the executive, legislative and judicial branches, as well as the decision to nationalize the country's natural gas. He also declared a state of emergency, accusing the opposition parties of conspiring against the constituent assembly and the government's decision to nationalize Bolivia's abundant natural gas reserves–two of the cornerstones of the new administration that took office in January. Two hours before the simple majority decision was reached on Sept. 1, Loayza, 57, a rural leader and the head of the MAS delegation in the constituent assembly, fell into the two-meter-deep orchestra pit in the theater where the assembly is meeting, during a shoving and shouting match between representatives of the governing party and the opposition. He suffered a head injury and is now in coma and on an artificial respirator. "Despite the improvement, he remains in critical condition, but he is expected to come out of the deep coma," said Dr. Erwin Quintanilla, a member of the medical team that is attending him in the ICU in a hospital in the city of Santa Cruz. Loayza is a rural activist from Bolivia's highlands region who played a leading role in the protests and roadblocks that toppled the governments of former presidents Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (2002-2003) and Carlos Mesa (2003-2005). One of the radical stances he has taken is in favor of changing the name of Bolivia to Tahuantinsuyo, an indigenous pre-colonial name, and of replacing the flag with a multicolored flag representing the Aymara indigenous community. (Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní Indians make up between 60 and 70 percent of Bolivia's population of nine million.) In the past few years, Bolivia, South America's poorest country, has experienced its greatest social and political turmoil since the restoration of democracy 24 years ago, due to widespread discontent over unemployment that remains high despite economic growth, and to the emergence of a movement in defense of state control over the country's natural resources, like water and natural gas. A constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution to strengthen the rights of and empower indigenous people was one of the central demands of the month-long protests in September/October 2003, against the export of natural gas to the United States and Mexico through a Chilean port. In the elections for the assembly, the MAS and allied parties and civil society organizations won 142 seats, and the opposition is now worried that the voices of the business community, middle-class sectors and right-wing parties will be ignored if decisions are reached by a simple majority vote. "The Assembly is mortally wounded," Samuel Doria Medina, the head of the National Unity party and a member of the constituent assembly, told IPS. "The executive branch's meddling in the constituent assembly has triggered a crisis," Doria Medina said. "At this point, the most important thing is to save the assembly, because there is a risk that progress will not be made towards the reforms." He was referring to a compromise agreement for a two-thirds vote on the rules of debate and several other areas that collapsed after Vice President Álvaro García Linera met with the MAS assembly members. Alexis Pérez, professor of history at the University Mayor de San Andrés, told IPS that the government's focus on empowering the people of the country's impoverished western Andean highlands region could lead to "civil war" as the traditional elites feel their position threatened. He pointed to the growing polarization of the country as a result of the clash between the interests of the "oligarchy" and those of the "people." Doria Medina warned that the provinces of the south and east–where the country's natural gas reserves and agribusiness wealth are concentrated, and which have been pressing for greater autonomy–will fight hard against the "simple majority" rules of debate adopted by the pro-government constituent assembly members.