Bolivian pres 'will step down'

2003-10-17 21:27

La Paz - Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada on Friday agreed to step down amid spiraling social unrest, clearing the way for Vice President Carlos Mesa to succeed him, a senior ruling coalition source said.

"He will make his resignation official in a letter to Congress, and then we will move on to the succession" later Friday, the source said.

Government spokespersons would not immediately confirm or deny the report. The president was huddled with advisers and scheduled to make an address to the nation later on Friday, they said.

Several radio stations broadcast the national anthem, and demonstrators in the streets of South America's poorest nation began setting bonfires and celebrating. Many sang and chanted "all the way to the damn resignation!"

Earlier, a key political ally of Bolivia's president dropped his support and said he would hold an emergency meeting on Friday with Sanchez de Lozada to weigh a response to calls by thousands of demonstrators for the Bolivian leader to step down.

The crisis is such that "we cannot row against the tide. We have to look for a way out as soon as possible, because we cannot go against democracy," Manfred Reyes Villa, leader of the New Republican Force that backs the president, told Panamericana radio, as armoured cars and troops stood watch outside the San Jorge presidential residence.

- AFP