President Carlos Mesa’s radical reform plans, including a re-write of the nation’s constitution, are an effort to curb the increasingly violent protests taking place nationwide. His announcement of these plans has deadlocked the congress for three days. Mesa countered that, Bolivia “?is being subjected to pressure that could make it explode.” A new assembly is slated to be elected on October 16, which would coincide with an autonomy referendum by the oil-rich states. Mesa claims these moves will “ensure national unity and [put] an end to the unrest.” This came on the heels of a congressional failure to convene on the two issues put forward, according to IPS News. Congress must, however, draft the terms for these contentious matters. Mesa’s moves pit native Indians and labor groups against the nation’s elite and gas/oil industry. In anti-government marches that have been going on for nearly four weeks, thousands of protesters have been boisterous and have detonated dynamite but have not yet become violent. However, police have fired tear gas and used rubber batons and water cannon to quash demonstrations, and vandalism and racism have been reported. Mesa’s aids continue to work feverishly and under heavily security at Murillo Plaza, the government palaces, while, according to Canal Siete, he has left the premises.

Protesters demand a constitutional reform to give more power and political voice to the indigenous community, which comprises about 60 percent of the population and who are primarily from the poor highlands areas, including the El Alto slums. Mesa had promised these reforms in his 2003 campaign platform in Latin America’s poorest country; they have yet to be implemented. This round of protests underscores long-simmering tensions and frustrations throughout the majority poor that have shown that market-led reforms have helped a few rich but left most of the nation no better off.