Evo Morales: We are talking about re-founding Bolivia

SUCRE, Bolivia
Aug 6
Bolivian President Evo Morales today acknowledged the Constituent Assembly as the country’s highest authority, and called for unity among the popular sectors of that forum for the country’s re-foundation.

During his opening remarks at the Constituent Assembly’s (CA) inauguration in this city, Bolivia’s judicial capital, Morales rejected the idea of the CA being only for reform, and said “it should have all powers,” over and above the presidency, Parliament, the judicial branch and every other agency.

The president thus laid out what may be the first large issue of debate among the 255 delegates elected on July 2: whether or not the CA should be a decision-making body with total power or be limited to modifying the Constitution without any profound changes.
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Morales noted that majority of the Assembly members are from modest backgrounds; many live in humble shacks, in villages without electricity. He warned the international community that if economic and social conditions for indigenous people are not improved, the country’s development will not be possible.

“I feel that Bolivia’s new history is beginning here, a history where there is equality and not discrimination,” he said.

The inauguration ceremony featured the presence of many invited foreign guests, including Carlos Lage, vice president of the Cuban Council of State, and was an open-air event in Sucre’s main plaza, in front of the Casa de la Libertad, where the Bolivian Declaration of Independence was signed in 1825.

Silvia Lazarte, Constituent Assembly president, and university dean Roberto Aguilar, its first vice president, were the first to be sworn in, holding up their left hands in a fist, just as Morales did during his presidential inauguration in January.

In a spirited speech, in a distinct accent from the Bolivian countryside, Lazarte had very harsh words for those responsible for the discrimination suffered by country’s rural population.