Conflicts Over Constitutional Reform: A Tentative Truce

Readers:

I am once again on the road, far from Bolivia. In my absence I have asked our great team in Cochabamba to keep Blog readers posted on events as they unfold. Here is their first installment, a report on the recent negotiations between the government, the opposition, and other key groups, aimed at getting the process of constitutional reform back on track.

Jim Shultz

A Tentative Truce

On Wednesday, political leaders from all sides, Assembly representatives, and government members gathered in the Vice-President's chambers for a much-awaited summit on the Constituent Assembly. The Assembly has been suspended since early September, when violent protests over a proposal to move the seat of the executive and legislative branches from La Paz to Sucre ground its sessions to a halt. The summit met for eight hours. At one o'clock in the morning, the political leaders filed out, saying they had reached an agreement that they would sign Thursday morning after some much-needed rest.

The leaders of the fourteen political parties signed the agreement the following day, which consisted of four points. In two points they assured that they would support the continuation of the Constituent Assembly. One point assured that the referendum on departmental autonomy would be respected in the final result (PODEMOS' biggest concern). The final point was a plan for resolving the topics which are still in conflict in the Constituent Assembly.

The plan relies on three arenas for reaching compromise. The first is the Constituent Assembly's Settlement Committee, already scheduled to meet when the Assembly reconvenes on October 8. It will be composed of the leadership of the Assembly, the heads of the political parties, and the leadership of each of the 21 commissions. The second arena for coming to agreements is the group that met on Wednesday and Thursday, mediated by Vice President Garcia Linera. The third is a smaller group created at the summit called the 'Special Committee for Dialogue and Consensus'. It will be composed of six Assembly representatives from MAS, three from PODEMOS, and one from each of the other political parties in the Constituent Assembly. The 'Special Committee' will meet all next week to come to compromises on the most conflictuous issues of the Constituent Assembly, and report back to the group mediated by the Vice President on October 1. Remaining issues will be dealt with by the Settlement Committee when the Constituent Assembly reconvenes.

The other point agreed on in Wednesday's summit was that the Capitalia issue would be discussed in a separate forum. The Interinstitutional Committee of Sucre, which led the demand for Capitalia, and representatives from La Paz met in Cochabamba yesterday, with the understanding that if they came to an agreement, it could be introduced either in the 'Special Committee' next week or in the Settlement Committee once the Assembly resumes. Not surprisingly, they did not come to any such agreement. The La Paz representatives said the Sucreños would not cede on any points, and that they had refused the Paceños' offer to continue the dialogue. Sucre representatives said they would appeal to the 'Special Committee' that meets next week.

The agreement reached by Wednesday's summit to continue the Constituent Assembly came just when many people had given up most hope. One has to wonder what happened on Wednesday to pull all the sides back together. One clue is MAS' proposal for the new Constitution, which came out in the days before the summit. In that proposal, departmental autonomy was to be implemented far less rapidly than PODEMOS wanted. Perhaps in Wednesday's summit, Garcia Linera reminded the conservative political party leaders that want departmental autonomy that the Constituent Assembly represents their only real hope for achieving it.

Make no mistake, this is no end to the conflictuous nature of the Constituent Assembly. It is a tentative truce. Reaching the consensus necessary to finish the work of the Constituent Assembly will be no walk in the park. The Capitalia issue is far from resolved. However, the current moment of truce is backed up by a web of committees, groups, meetings, and timelines both sides have agreed to. It represents the best shot the Constituent Assembly has for dialogue and finding way out of the conflict.

Written by Leny Olivera, Aldo Orellana, and Lily Whitesell