The Exile in Maryland -- Bolivia's Deposed President Three Years Later

Readers:

Tuesday marks the third anniversary since Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada fled the nation to political exile in the US, following public outrage over his government's brutal repression of protests against his plans to sell the nation's gas through Chile to the US. The anniversary will be marked by events in seventeen cities on four continents. The Democracy Center marks it with this article sent to the 4,000 readers of our global newsletter. Below is the introduction with a link to the full text.

Jim Shultz

The Exile in Maryland -- Bolivia's
Deposed President Three Years Later

I have only seen Bolivia's deposed ex-President, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, in person once. It was about a year ago and he was alone in the Miami airport, waiting for the same flight as me to Washington. He seemed like any other business traveler – a tired looking man who attracted no special public attention.

Three years ago this week, on October 17, 2003, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was boarding a very different flight to Washington. For a month, Bolivia had been exploding in protest against Sánchez de Lozada’s plans to export bargain-priced Bolivian gas through Chile and onward to California. Troops under presidential orders to stop those protests killed at least sixty people and left hundreds of others wounded. The killings sparked such public outrage that even his own Vice-President broke with him.

That night, as a tense nation watched events unfold on their televisions; Sánchez de Lozada resigned his presidency, boarded a private jet, and fled to political exile in the suburbs of Maryland, just outside the US capital. Three years later the ex-leader known here as "Goni” (and often as "El Gringo" for the sharp American accent he picked up living in the US a good part of his life) faces murder charges in Bolivia for his actions during Black October. He is under a legal order from the Bolivian government to return for trial. But thanks to the political graces of the Bush Administration, the man accused of murder remains a happy protected resident of Center Street in Chevy Chase.

Read the full artile here.