Bolivia’s president faces tough struggle to assert her authority

Bolivia’s newly declared interim president faces the challenge of winning recognition, stabilising the nation and organising national elections within three months at a time of bloody political disputes that pushed the nation’s first indigenous leader to fly off to self-exile in Mexico after 14 years in power.

Some people took to the streets cheering and waving national flags when Jeanine Anez, who had been secondvice president of the Senate, claimed the presidency after higher ranking successors to the had post resigned.

But furious supporters of the ousted Evo Morales responded by trying to force their way to the Congress building in La Paz yelling, “She must quit!”

The constitution gives an interim president 90 days to organise an election, and Ms Anez’s still disputed accession was an example of the problems she’ll face.

Mr Morales’ backers, who hold a two-thirds majority in Congress, boycotted the session she had called to formalise her accession, preventing a quorum.

Frustrated in that effort, she took power in any case, with no-one to swear her in, saying the constitution did not specifically require congressional approval.

“Mycommitmentistoreturn democracy and tranquillity to the country,” she said. “They can never again steal our vote.”

Bolivia’s top constitutional court issued a statement laying out the legal justification for Ms Anez taking the presidency – without mentioning her by name.

But other legal experts challenged the technicalities that led to her claiming the presidency from such a relatively low-ranking post, saying at least some of the steps required Congress to meet.

And the lingering question could affect her ability to govern.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said his country’s diplomats had to scramble to arrange a flight path for Mr Morales to leave Bolivia because some nations initially closed airspace to it. The plane stopped in Paraguay to refuel, instead of Peru as initially planned.

Mr Morales, a former llama shepherd and union leader, helped lift millions out poverty as president, increasing social rights and presiding over stability and high economic growth in South America’s poorest country.

But even many supporters eventually grew weary of his long tenure in power – as well as his insistence in running for a fourth term despite a public referendum that upheld term limits,restrictionsthrownout by a top court.