Leaders of Bolivian protest groups attend a meeting with new President Eduardo Rodriguez on June 12.

Rodriguez, a 49-year-old Supreme Court justice, is to call elections within 150 days to fill out the term of past President Carlos Mesa, whose resignation was accepted by congress June 9 after La Paz was strangled by street barricades that led to food and fuel shortages.

Evo Morales, a leftist House leader and former coca leaf farmer who led the opposition protests, declared a truce June 10. An anti-U.S. politician who is expected to be a leading presidential candidate, Morales said he would back efforts by Rodriguez to lead a caretaker government that will set the stage for the vote.

"One must understand that he is the new president and he has expressed a commitment to listen to our demands," Morales said. "His election is easing the tensions and we are going to accept a truce."

Rodriguez was to soon name a Cabinet and begin studying plans for elections of a president to fill out Mesa's term that was to have ended in August 2007.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 18, 2005
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