Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 11 Nov 2019
BOLIVIA’S DEPUTY SPEAKER, Jeanine Anez – constitutionally in line to become interim president following Evo Morales’ resignation – pledged today to call fresh elections in the troubled South American country.
“We are going to call elections,” Anez told reporters in La Paz, saying that there will be “an electoral process that reflects the wants of all Bolivians”.
Lawmakers are due to meet tomorrow to begin the process of electing an interim president after the resignations of Morales and his ministers left a power vacuum in the country. It came following three weeks of protests over his disputed re-election.
The army and police withdrew their backing for the beleaguered 60-year-old, and sparked wild celebrations in the country’s capital La Paz.
“I resign my post as president,” Latin America’s longest-serving president said in a televised address yesterday, ending a day of drama when ministers and senior officials quit as support Morales crumbled.
US President Donald Trump hailed the resignation of Bolivia’s leftist leader as a sign to “illegitimate” regimes and praised the role of the country’s military.
“These events send a strong signal to the illegitimate regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua that democracy and the will of the people will always prevail,” Trump said, referring to two other leftist Latin American nations targeted by his administration.
Trump said that the resignation of Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous leader who was seeking a fourth term despite a constitutional prohibition, was a “significant moment for democracy in the western hemisphere”.
After nearly 14 years and his recent attempt to override the Bolivian constitution and the will of the people, Morales’ departure preserves democracy and paves the way for the Bolivian people to have their voices heard.
Morales, a member of the Aymara indigenous community, is a former coca farmer who became Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006.
During his resignation speech, he defended his legacy, which includes landmark gains against hunger and poverty and tripling the country’s economy during his nearly 14 years in office.
He gained a controversial fourth term when he was declared the winner of the 20 October presidential election by a narrow margin.
But the opposition said there was fraud in the vote count and three weeks of street protests ensued, during which three people died and hundreds were injured.
The Organisation of American States subsequently carried out an audit of the election and reported irregularities in almost every aspect that it examined including the technology used, the chain of custody of ballots, the integrity of the count, and statistical projections.
Pro Evo Morales demonstrators have also taken to the streets, with some chanting that this is the beginning of a Civil War.
The main opposition candidate in the election, former president Carlos Mesa, hailed the resignation when it came, and said that Bolivia would become a “new country”.
‘Not an escape’
To make the announcement that he was stepping down, Morales travelled by plane to the coca-growing Chimore region of central Bolivia, the cradle of his career in politics.
It was there in the 1980s that he made his name as a combative union leader defending farmers who grow coca. This time, he insisted he was not running away from his responsibilities.
“I do not have to escape. I have not stolen anything,” he said. “My sin is being indigenous. To be a coca grower.”
Life does not end here. The struggle continues.
“I am resigning so that they (the opposition leaders) do not continue to kick our brothers,” Morales said, referring to pro-government protesters who repeatedly clashed with opposition demonstrators.
In the immediate aftermath of the shock announcement, Latin American allies rallied to denounce a coup against one of their own.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro called for a mobilisation of political and social movements “to demand the preservation of the life of the Bolivian native peoples, victims of racism.”
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez described Morales as “a protagonist and a symbol of the rights of the indigenous peoples of our Americas”.
And Brazil’s Lula insisted “my friend Morales” had been removed in a coup, evidence of “an economic elite in Latin America that did not know how to share democracy with poor people”.
The UN meanwhile said that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned” about the developments.
Guterres “urges all concerned to refrain from violence, reduce tension and exercise maximum restraint”, his spokesman said in a statement.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
No phone boxes either…
Post boxes to go next – as internet communications/e-commerce/e-mails increase, and take over.
Then post offices for the same reasons.
Son there’ll be nothing left to pee into.
Finally, the post office will disappear (with benefits paid into bank accounts) when postal deliveries cease, for good.
Where we live they already use disposable nappies and throw them in the ditches……
Post will benefit from the continued increase in online shopping. Going nowhere.
The majority of my internet purchases come by courier.
It was the number one spot outside Trinity.
Doddle is dealing with deliveries in London. 300 stores will be open at train stations across the UK. Argos is also in bed with eBay
True. I always wonder why eircom (eir) don’t just convert the phone boxes into worked hubs with boosted range and provide WiFi throughout the country. I know it might not be lightening fast but it would be something. I was in Limerick recently and noted that there is city wide free Wi-Fi. A few cities on mainland Europe do the same.
@Ger Comings: “The majority of my internet purchases come by courier”. The majority of Heroin and Cocaine comes by gurrier.
If you ever wonder what they were like just think about the toilet in the bookies in Trainspotting..
In a thousand years time this will probably be looked upon as a great archaeological discovery of how the Irish pissed in the twentieth century…..academics will probably write books on the subject or whatever they will use then to document these things.
It was a shit hole anyway
Think the fact we even had public toilets that could be considered historic is the real story here.
Yes liam. They were British toilets built by Armitage Shanks of Staffordshire – and, I suppose, they had to be gotten rid of, like Nelson’s Column.
There’s a story that one day some Japanese tourists stopped by Pat Ingoldsby selling books outside the Bank of Ireland and asked for directions to St Stephen’s green. He apparently pointed across the road to the toilets and told them to head down to the subway, take one stop and they’d be there.
A couple of old underground victorian style public toilets in london have been turned into cool little bars and restaurants.
Unfortunately our planning authorities are failing the city yet again
Yes Emma – there’s a fine/largish one on Shepherd’s Bush Green, which does extremely well. Because its near the massive Westfield Shopping Cente, which is the biggest in the UK.
We’ll just have to struggle on.
In fairness, these toilets were rather tiny from what I remember and would never have been viable as bars or restaurants.
Westfield is actually the third biggest in the UK Ger, the MetroCentre in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, is the biggest, followed by the Trafford Centre in Manchester.
Biggest – in terms of business, not square footage, which is not cost effective. In other words, the most profitable and busiest. Sorry for confusing you, pope.
Which pope is the wiki freak…p1, the kraut?
JR, in fairness? In fact, some were huge – with several staff.
Not even a nice try, you stated ‘biggest’ – not ‘most profitable’, sorry to piss on your parade Mr. Shortcomings :)
Biggest, as in business. Pope wiki…
Wrong again, you claimed ‘biggest’ period, Google ‘biggest’ and physical size will be the only results returned, learn how to communicate before digging an ever bigger hole for yourself and your overly sensitive ego.
These toilets were used during the 1916 Rising by the martyrs. This is an OUTRAGE!
I’m organising a march starting on Parnell St (outside party headquarters) on Saturday at 10am.
Will try pop down also. I have hoped for most of my years to see these public restrooms restored and put to use.
These will be as much of an improvement to the cityscape as the corpo flats. Our history is slowly being erased..
If you’re being serious, why did you wait until now? This was all planned ages ago.
Ah, Dublin City Council. From the people who brought you fines for pissing in the street, on foot of the closure of public conveniences in the 1990′s. What other civilised Capital City in Europe is without public toilets? I am not well travelled, but have been to Paris, Rome, Lisbon and Berlin – facilities which recognize human physiology are available in all these places. I cannot speak to their availability elsewhere.
I’m surprised it wasn’t objected to by people claiming a 1916 leader had a S***e in one during the rising
George Michael petitioning Dublin city council to preserve the toilets
Who she?
Sad that we had to lose the loos for the luas.
I cant understand why the existing structure couldn’t be used for a control box?
For the control of what exactly, Brian?
“Plans are now in place for a control box to be fitted at the site which will allow operate the College Street and Westmoreland Street Luas stops when they are completed.”
I would assume its that?
Remember that these particular jacksies have not been used (or abused!) for 20 years. Whatever alternative arrangements were to be made were made long ago!
Whatever the plan for the site is, It’s not available to view on the DCC planning search. I wonder Why?
Ah now! Demolished and not a protester in sight! I honestly thought that this action would surely merit a dirty protest!
Good riddance
remember the graffiti -Welcome to the Pleasure Dome. But seriously where are people meant to go for a pee in the city centre?
Against the spire…
It hasn’t been in use for 20 years. Didn’t bother you then
I think you have a point.
Put’s a new meaning to “taking the piss”
Luas drivers now going down the crapper. What next???
agh sh*te!
Pretty disgraceful treatment of the city’s Victorian heritage.
This is a real bummer.
The only sh*te you will see there in the future will be driving a tram. Ding ding.
If those walls could only talk. Shot no, we don’t want to go down that shady lane
Shur we’ll puss up the nearest alleyway it’ll be grand, we’re irish what else would you expect?
The Loos have made way for the Luas.
That’s some old shite..
“Public toilets over 100 years old are demolished to clear way for Luas”. I think this article is a load of sh*te. I’m pis*ed off!.
No shit!
A lot of Brown envelopes around the JC Decauox Dublin Bikes scheme. The deal was done in private and city manager did not allow transparency.
have your say