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Bolivia opens assembly to
rewrite constitution
Bolivian President Evo Morales
on Sunday opened the Constituent
Assembly (AC), which is to
rewrite the country's
constitution giving its
indigenous people more power.
"You have an enormous
responsibility to change our
Bolivia ... not only a
responsibility to bring us a new
constitution, but as soldiers
for our country's true
independence," said Morales at a
ceremony in Sucre, the nation's
capital.
The AC has six months to rewrite
the constitution, a task which
the president says must be done
with an emphasis on dignity and
freedom.
Silvia Lazarte, 42, was chosen
as head of the 255-member
assembly. Lazarte is also
indigenous, and is a former farm
worker and social fighter.
Both Lazarte and Morales said
the new body should be a forum
where all Bolivians had a voice
and a vote, and all those who
had been marginalized and
discriminated against in the
past were included.
Morales' party, the Movement for
Socialism, holds 137 seats but
is still under the two-thirds,
or 170-seat threshold to rewrite
the constitution on its own.
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