Update on the Brewing Rebellion Over Gas

As of Thursday night the brewing national confrontation over the gas issue seems to be getting more and more serious by the hour.

It seems likely now that by Monday morning protests coming out of El Alto will start to shut down road access into La Paz, with calls for President Mesa’s resignation and a new gas law that returns control of the country’s petroleum reserves to the government. A national march on La Paz is also set to begin Monday morning at the mid-point between Cochabamba and La Paz. Mesa has convened a national summit for Monday in the city of Sucre (perhaps it is for occasions such as these that Bolivia has two capital cities – one to be blockaded and one to do business in) but it won’t really include a cross-section of the interests and movements involved. The IMF is shoving in private and claiming to be hands-off Bolivia in public.

The endgame in the long battle over gas is afoot and anyone who says they know what the next week will look like in Bolivia is fooling themselves. Here is the full report that The Democracy Center just sent out tonight to our readers around the world. We’ll do our best to keep you updated daily here on the Blog.