Evo Morales resigns

[kaoras]

Not knowing when to quit is unfortunately still pretty common for Latin American leaders. Aside of classical examples of tailoring the constitution to allow yourself unlimited reelection, like Venezuela, the same goes even for countries with strict term limits. In Peru you have a bunch of former Presidents running in every election. In Chile the presidency essentially alternated between Bachelet and Pinera during last few cycles, and before that we had Frei running again. In Uruguay Vasquez returned after waiting out his four years.

Correra is among those honorable examples of not trying to mess with the constitution by allowing himself more terms. Instead he stepped down and supported his preferred successor (even though Lenin turned out to be a sore disappointment).

It all makes me even more in fabor of the Mexican system. You got one term and then you can never, ever serve again.

I’d hardly call Piñera, Bachelet, Vázquez, etc. serving two terms “not knowing when to quit”.

Erm.......

My thoughts exactly

[kaoras]

Kalwejt wasn’t talking about the protests, but even if he was I really don’t get the calls for Piñera to resign. It’s not as if Chadwick would have been any better.

Is because it would lead to new elections and this government has demonstrated over and over its total incompetence at handling the situation. The only thing he has done is adding more logs to the fire and bears political responsibility for the deaths, tortures and hundreds of people with eye wounds as a result of the brutal repression.

[kaoras]

Also, I'll say it again, Piñera has both the duty and the (constitutional, legal and democratic) right to finish his term. Not only that, his resignation would not solve the crisis and would make the situation even worse, the last thing the country needs is a power vacuum.

I got to agree here. If he didn't break any law or failed to uphold his oath, then there's no reason for Pinera to be required to resign. And it wouldn't really accomplish anything positive. South America is becoming increasingly unstable and even Chile, with its remarkable history of transition to a functioning democracy, is not immune. I may not like Pinera, but the democratic legitimacy and government continuity must be respected.

The unjust use of force and state of emergency used on peaceful protesters isn’t enough for you?

It won't be enough until the police blind every single person in this country apparently.

And besides, how exactly would be Piñera resigning make the situation worse? That's gotta be one of the top demands of the protest, in fact would be extremely helpful at controlling the unrest. The guy hasn't made a public appearance in days, today half of the country burned, again, and at 22:25 local time, he still hasn't done or said anything. He is totally ineffective at responding at the social demands, and on top of that is totally ineffective at maintaining the minimum semblance of public order, with the police tear-gassing and torturing peaceful protesters and doing absolutely nothing when there is looting or vandalism (Because you know where it would be useful use tear gas? To disperse looters!, not throwing tear gas bombs at families with children as it just happened at the protest I was at. )