at least in the English-speaking press. First, while it's probably a good thing that permanent re-election and the ability to single-handedly impose unlimited states of exception have been defeated, there were lots of other proposals in the constitutional reform that got almost no press and that are now left in limbo. These include everything from a shorter work week to the creation of a process for community audits of local budgets and input on budgeting priorities at the local level -- something those concerned with democracy and transparency ought to be in favor of. There were also provisions on food security and sustainable agriculture, and on a potpourri of other subjects. It's not clear how those changes now get made.Second, while all the focus has been on Venezuela, events in Bolivia have been even more dramatic (if that's possible). After the landowner-led separatist opposition decided to boycott a constitutional convention, the government and its supporters in the convention decided to post their own draft constitution, and threatened to pass it in December even without opposition votes. Meanwhile, the opposition is staging hunger strikes and
threatening boycotts, and the majority (largely highland indigenous people) have threatened land seizures. The draft constitution itself is very interesting: it starts with a catalog of rights largely taken from human rights conventions and the UN declaration on indigenous peoples. It provides for a plurinational state, makes the indigenous languages official, and provides extensive protections for children, the elderly, and consumers as well as state control over natural resources. It has extensive provisions on environmental protection, and a series of provisions that would bring Bolivia into direct conflict with the WTO regime. On the legal front, it recognizes as equally valid western-style courts and traditional indigenous justice, and creates a Constitutional Court made up of judges half of whom come from the western court system and half from the indigenous court system. It's not clear how much of this will survive any negotiation process, should the two sides manage to engage in one. It's also not clear what happens if the assembly pushes through this or another draft in the teeth of opposition from the lowland wealthy. For updates on the situation, two good sites in English: Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) and The Democracy Center, Cochabamba, Bolivia.
