An agreement has been reached to settle the conflict in Bolivia, at least for the time being. The “Great National Agreement” is, IMHO, a thing of great beauty. Basically, everyone involved realized that they were all going to lose if the violence escalated and decided to take a deep breath and calm down.
Judge for yourself.
1. Basis for a national dialogue:
(a) The dialogue will cover the following agenda:
•IDH - royalties: The national government, in accordance with current law, recognizes the right of the provinces to share in the Direct Hydrocarbon Tax. The national government, while guaranteeing the payment of the Dignity Pension, repeats its decision to respect the current distribution of royalties to the provinces.
•Provincial autonomy: The national government expresses its respect for the autonomy of the provinces of Pando, Beni, Tarija y Santa Cruz.
•The new constitution.
•Institutional pact: congressional vacancies, electoral rolls, voter ID distribution, and the election process.(b) The objects of the dialogue's agenda will be detailed in three working roundtables and one central session that will approve all agreements.
(c) Unasur, the Catholic Church, the European Union, the OAS, and the United Nations are invited to facilitate.
2. Reestablishing social peace under the rule of law:
(a) All public offices and petroleum installations that have occupied due to the conflict by non-authorized personnel will be turned back. Discussions about the new territorial administration of such office and institutions will be undertaken.
(b) All road blockades will be lifted.
(c) The national government will suspend the Congressional vote on a referendum for a new constitution for one month, which may be lengthened in accordance with the results of the national dialogue.
(d) In order to shed light on the tragic events in Pando, investigators from impartial national and international organizations and a Congressional committee will be dispatched to the place when the events took place.
(e) No judicial actions that might have political connotations will be taken.
(f) The Governor of Tarija, representing the five mobilized provinces, asks that the state of emergency in Pando be lifted.
3. The national dialogue will officially begin on Thursday, September 18, 2008, in the city of Cochabamba, and conclude in the city of Tarija.
Things could still go very wrong, of course. The devil is in the constitutional details. But so far, so sensible.
I am very curious as to how all this looks from elsewhere in the world. Is this sort of mutual stand-down, where everyone throws stuff under the bus, easier or harder in the Balkans and Caucasus?
The crisis in the US dominates the headlines in Argentina (the stock market is crashing, the dollar is climbing, country risk highest level since default, etc, you know the drill). However, "the Great National Agreement" made its way in the main newspaper (http://www.clarin.com/diario/2008/09/17/um/m-01761832.htm). According to this source, today, the President called the Catholic, the Methodist, and the Evangelical Church to participate in the national dialogue.
Posted by: Leticia A. | September 17, 2008 at 01:58 PM