President of Bolivia resigns amid unrest

BOGOTA -- After weeks of increasingly violent protests that have choked the economy and paralyzed the political process, President Carlos Mesa of Bolivia resigned last night, in an effort to resolve a national crisis over how to divide up the country's natural gas wealth.

''We have reached a point where no one wants to listen to each other," Mesa, 51, said in a speech broadcast on Bolivian cable television Bolivision. ''This is why I offer my resignation so as not to be an obstacle."

His resignation came on the day that tens of thousands of indigenous activists, miners, and labor union members clogged the streets of downtown La Paz in the largest antigovernment march in weeks. In recent days, police have responded to protesters' rock-hurling with tear gas and barricades.

Mesa tried to step down three months ago over protests against his hydrocarbons policy, but Congress rejected his resignation, giving Mesa crucial support after he had said the country was becoming ungovernable. Mesa was counting on foreign investment to tap Bolivia's 28.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Latin America's second-largest reserves after Venezuela, to drive economic growth and create jobs.

This time, however, analysts said lawmakers frustrated over Mesa's inability to persuade leftist popular forces to accept a law to increase gas taxes would probably accept his resignation and hope a transitional leader would be able to reconcile the country's polarized political forces.

''Is this a serious resignation? It looks like it is, though it's not irrevocable," said Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivia specialist at Florida International University interviewed by telephone last night.

The departure of Mesa, an independent politician who has been assailed by all sides, would leave a void, Gamarra said, that ''in a worst-case scenario, could lead to civil war, laced with all kinds of serious racial overtones. Quite possibly, in a best case, we're looking at six months of serious uncertainty and political turmoil. The situation is very severe." It was not clear when lawmakers would meet to accept or reject his resignation. If he is permitted to step down, he would be replaced by the president of the Senate.

Roberto Laserna, a political analyst in the central highlands city of Cochabamba, said by telephone last night that Mesa's resignation was ''selfish, and may aggravate the crisis," adding that the president should have waited for efforts by Catholic bishops to resolve the crisis through reconciliation.

Yesterday, more than 500 protesters were turned away by tear gas as they tried to close in on Mesa's seat of power at the government palace, and riot police also scattered a crowd of thousands from another downtown plaza. No injuries were immediately reported, but police arrested 22 people, including protesters accused of carrying dynamite, according to state television Canal 7.