Bolivia's president promises public votes on fuel subsidies and constitutionality of reelection
Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce says national referenda will be held soon on the removal of politically combustible fuel subsidies and on the constitutionality of presidential reelections
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivia's socialist President Luis Arce said Tuesday national referenda would be held soon on the removal of politically combustible fuel subsidies and on the constitutionality of presidential reelections, offering for the first time a concrete path out of the country's economic morass and political limbo.
Arce did not give a date for the votes in his speech from Sucre, the southern historical capital, as Bolivia marked the 199th anniversary of its independence. He defended the referenda proposal as a way to dispel some of the uncertainty Bolivians have endured for months, promising that the populist gesture wasn't about “electoral calculations or personal ambitions.”
“It's time for the people, together with their government, to choose the path we wish to follow in view of the bicentennial,” Arce said.
A plan to vote on the elimination of fuel subsidies comes as incensed truckers and other protesters have blockaded roads leading to Bolivian cities in recent weeks over the scarcity of diesel, which is more than 80% imported. Fuel shipments from Bolivia's key ally Russia were stranded by a rainstorm last week at a Chilean port, adding to pressures on Arce's administration.
The government has nearly gone bankrupt importing and heavily subsidizing fuel. Bolivia would need $10 million a day to keep importing gasoline at international prices, selling it at half the price and remaining solvent, energy analyst Raul Velasquez said.
Without exporting natural gas anymore — once the mainstay of its booming economy —
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