BOLIVIA: In the Bolivian parliament yesterday deputies struggled to agree on how to replace president Carlos Mesa, as top military commanders urged them to find a swift, constitutional solution to the political crisis.
With pressure growing for elections to end weeks of crippling indigenous protests, troops in riot gear protected the white colonial building in Bolivia's old capital, Sucre, where congress must decide who will be the next president after Mr Mesa's resignation has been accepted.
Bolivia's constitution calls for senate president Hormando Vaca Diez, a wealthy rancher, to assume the presidency.
But legislators are facing pressure from Indian leaders and many Bolivians, who see him as unacceptable and are demanding a new presidential election.
Police fired tear gas at peasants and students who set off sticks of dynamite and fireworks in the streets of the 16th-century town to protest against Mr Vaca Diez and demand he step aside to allow Bolivians to go to the ballot box.
Bolivia's military commanders called for calm yesterday and said they would support congress, if its decision upholds the law.
Mr Mesa resigned after three weeks of blockades by Bolivia's poor Indian majority calling for nationalisation of energy reserves and a special assembly to grant them more power.
Analysts said Mr Vaca Diez is seen by many Bolivians as representing a failed traditional, political class. But he appears to have the support of his MIR party and the MNR, the largest bloc in the 157-member legislature.
Weeks of often violent protests and roadblocks in La Paz have left petrol stations dry and meat and bread increasingly scarce. Several airlines have suspended flights and the United States ordered non-emergency personnel to leave its embassy.
(Additional reporting by Mario Roque in El Alto and Roberto Aguirre in Santa Cruz)