Bolivia's vice-President has been sworn in to take over the presidency after the resignation of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada following a popular revolt in South America's poorest nation.
Sanchez de Lozada, a free marketeer and key US ally in the so-called 'anti-drug war', resigned yesterday after a month-long revolt by Bolivia's Indian majority in which more than 70 people died.
Carlos Mesa, a respected journalist and political independent, was sworn in after Congress designated him to serve out Sanchez de Lozada's term, due to end in 2007. He immediately addressed the calls of Indian leaders for early elections, proposing that his mandate be shortened.
"Bolivia is still not a country of equals. We must understand our peoples, our (indigenous) Quechuas and Aymaras," he told Congress after he was sworn in.
Mesa, wearing the brightly coloured presidential sash and reading from a prepared speech, said it was time for "reparations" for the indigenous majority that led the wave of protests against Sanchez de Lozada.
"I warn you the dangers hanging over the country remain intact," Sanchez de Lozada said in a bitter letter read aloud to Congress by an official amid the heckling of opponents, some in traditional Indian dress, screaming "murderer."
His resignation came after tens of thousands of Indian farmers, workers and miners had marched and blockaded the world's highest capital for weeks to reject Sanchez de Lozada's US-backed, pro-market policies.
Heeding protests over the pilfering of Bolivia's natural resources, Mesa promised a referendum on a widely opposed plan to export gas to the United States that became a rallying cry for Sanchez de Lozada's opponents.
Grievances ranged from the now-shelved gas plan to a US-backed drive to wipe out crops of the staple coca leaf - the raw material for cocaine.
Even before he formally announced his resignation to a Congress guarded by a ring of assault vehicles and troops, protesters danced and clapped in the streets. Miners set off dynamite charges before singing the national anthem.
Local TV reported the ex-president, guarded by over 300 troops, had flown from La Paz to the eastern city of Santa Cruz where he was due to board a flight for Miami. The reports could not be immediately confirmed.
"Finally, the criminal has fallen!" said Roberto de la Cruz, a union leader. Like many protesters he blames the former president for the deaths of demonstrators, nearly all of whom died from bullet wounds after being shot by police or troops.
His resignation came as La Paz lay nearly in ruins. Streets are barricaded and little food has entered in the last week. Basic necessities from bread to aspirin were in short supply. Streets were littered with trash, broken glass and tires. The peppery sting of tear gas hung in the air.
The US-educated Sanchez de Lozada, who speaks Spanish with a US accent and is nicknamed "the gringo," was seen as out of touch with the poverty-stricken Indian population.
Many live on less than $5 a week, and the life expectancy in some areas of this eight-million strong Andean country is under 45 years.
Sanchez de Lozada's fall from a free-market star of Washington in his first 1993-1997 term has coincided with a Latin American trend of increasingly sophisticated indigenous movements, who organise with cell phones and the Internet.
"This is the power of the people," coca farmers' leader Evo Morales said as he watched developments on TV.
The growing political muscle of socialist movements in Bolivia extends a shift toward the left across South America where new leaders in Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina have questioned who benefits from free trade and investment flows.
A Brazilian Air Force plane evacuated 108 people from La Paz, while Israel also made arrangements for stranded tourists to be airlifted out with help from Peru. US and British governments advised their citizens not to travel to Bolivia.
The US military said it was sending a small team of security specialists to the U.S. Embassy in La Paz to examine contingency plans to evacuate diplomats if necessary.