For an in-depth and well-researched (and delightfully snarky) examination of the political implications of Mesa’s transition to power, go to The Lincoln Plawg Weblog. John Smith describes the situation in La Paz:
At first glance, it’s a cartoon with characters from Central Casting: a class/racial struggle between the white, upper-class, gringo-fied president and the charismatic Indian peasant leader; riots, tanks, blood – the whole nine yards. The Latin equivalent of Errol Flynn versus Basil Rathbone – and the result is similar, too.
Then gradually, the subtleties become more apparent, questions spring to mind…
In other news, the State Department, Knight Ridder reports, has thanked Goni for his work.
But officials “stopped short of congratulating new President Carlos Mesa, whose position on U.S. interests in Bolivia, particularly an unpopular coca eradication program, remain unclear…Mesa, a former television journalist, has been critical of many of Sanchez de Lozada’s reforms, including a proposed new income tax and a U.S.-backed effort to eradicate the production of coca, the leaves of which are used to produce cocaine.”