Carlos Mesa

Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert (La Paz, August 12, 1953) is a Bolivian politician, journalist and historian. He was the sixty-third president of the Republic of Bolivia from October 17, 2003 until his resignation on June 9, 2005; and the thirty-seventh vice president of Bolivia from August 6, 2002 to October 17, 2003 during the second government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (2003), being in that constitutional management the president of the Bolivian National Congress.

In the 2019 general elections, he was a candidate for the presidency of Bolivia for the political alliance Comunidad Ciudadana. Subsequently, and due to the annulment of the election due to electoral fraud, he ran again as a candidate in the 2020 general elections in which he lost to Luis Arce, obtaining 28.8% of the votes.

Birth and youth

Table at 18, 1971

Carlos Mesa was born on August 12, 1953 in La Paz. He is the son of two prominent Bolivian architects and historians, José de Mesa and Teresa Gisbert.

He began his school studies in 1959 at the San Calixto school in the city of La Paz. He completed a year of high school (the 3rd) in Madrid, Spain (1966-1967) at the "San Estanislao de Kotska" school. He returned to La Paz where he finished his studies, leaving high school in 1970 at the Colegio San Calixto de Següencoma .

Mesa and his family, 1965

In 1969, Carlos Mesa was an intern for radio station Universo in La Paz, where he made his first career as a journalist, a task that he would later develop in programs for radio stations Méndez (1974) and Metropolitan (1976).

In 1970, Carlos Mesa enrolled in Political Science and Letters at the Complutense University of Madrid. He returned to Bolivia three years later in 1973 to enroll in the Literature major at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), from which he graduated in 1978.

Career in journalism

As a journalist, he has worked on radio, print and television. He inaugurated a style of journalism that left an indelible mark on Bolivia, he established a school and established him as the most important journalist of his generation.

He served as deputy director of the newspaper Última Hora (1982-1983), director of the América Televisión de Bolivia, Telesistema Boliviano and ATB channels (1985-1990). In 1990 he created, together with Ximena Vladivia, Mario Espinoza and Amalia Pando, the news producer Periodistas Asociados Televisión (PAT) which, directed by Mesa until November 2014 (except for the period in which he held the vice presidency and the presidency of the country), became a television channel. PAT is one of the fundamental referents of television journalism in Bolivia to this day.^{[citation required]}

Between 1988 and 1990 he was a member of the board of the Association of Journalists of La Paz as Secretary General. From 1983 to 2002 he hosted the talk show De Cerca. Between 1979 and 1985 he worked as an analyst and commentator on Radio Cristal together with Lorenzo Carri.

Awards for his journalistic work

He has been honored with important distinctions, such as the 1994 King of Spain Award (together with Mario Espinoza), one of the most important awards in Ibero-American journalism, as well as the Manuel Vicente Ballivián Foundation Award (2000) and the National Award for Journalism of Bolivia of 2012.

In 2012 he was visiting professor at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies in Barcelona (Spain) in the subject of International Relations in Latin America. He also worked as a university professor, between 2013 and 2018, in the subject of Bolivian History, at the San Pablo Bolivian Catholic University.

Cinema career

As a filmmaker, he founded the Bolivian Cinematheque together with Pedro Susz Kohl and Amalia de Gallardo and directed it between 1976 and 1985, making more than a hundred documentaries of a historical nature together with Mario Espinoza and Ximena Valdivia.

In 1995 he executive produced the award-winning Bolivian feature film Jonás y la ballena rosada directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia. directed by Juan Carlos Valdivia and based on the homonymous novel by Wolfango Montes Vannuci.

In addition, he has published three books on the history of Bolivian cinema.

Audiovisual documentalist

His cinematographic vocation was combined with that of researcher in the series Bolivia siglo XX (premiered in 2009, a contemporary history of the country in 24 chapters of an hour on average) and in the hundred of television documentaries that he made. He is co-author with his parents of the successful Historia de Bolivia (1997), a book that as of 2019 had already had eleven editions. He is a member of the Bolivian Academy of History and of the Bolivian History Society.

Posts

Table at the Miami International Book Fair, 2014 presenting the Soliloquie of the Conqueror

Books he published

In 1979 he published his first book, a collective work, titled Bolivian cinema from the filmmaker to the critic.

In 1982 he published Bolivian Cinema according to Luis Espinal. The book reviews the personality of the Bolivian nationalized Spanish priest, journalist and filmmaker, his political-religious commitment committed to the poorest and, above all, his strong link with Bolivian cinema, including the criticisms he made of the most relevant films of the period 1969-1979.

In 1983 he published one of his most important works, Presidents of Bolivia between ballot boxes and rifles.

In 1985 he published one of the most important books in the history of Bolivian cinema, Bolivian cinema from filmmaker to critic.

In 1991 he published Un Debate entre Gytanos, about the most famous interview in the history of the program De Cerca, conducted with the Minister of Information of the Government of Jaime Paz Zamora, Mario Rueda Peña.

In 1993 he published De Cerca Una Decada de Conversaciones en Democracia, a selection of the most important interviews from the talk show De Cerca.

In 1994 he published La Epopeya del Fútbol Boliviano, a complete tour, both in text and in images, of the history of Bolivian soccer since its birth in 1896.

In 1995 he published Territorios de Libertad, a selection of the columns written by Mesa between 1988 and 1995 under the name of “Vertebral Column”. Through these reflections it is possible to understand the author's thought, his humanist and democratic vocation and his special interest in Bolivian history and culture.

In 1997, together with his parents, he published the book History of Bolivia. With eleven editions, it is the reference book for the general history of Bolivia.

In 2000 he published The Sword in the Word, a compendium that selects the columns written by Carlos D. Mesa Gisbert between 1995 and 2000 under the name Vertebral Column.

In 2008 he published Besieged Presidency. For the first time, a former president dares to write a stark and intimate memoir of his time in power (2002-2005). Passionate testimony of one of the crucial moments of contemporary democracy. An x-ray of the historical moment and the characters who starred in it.

In 2008 he published A Government of Citizens. A book coordinated and edited by the former president and written by the most outstanding personalities of the government of Carlos Mesa where they take stock of his two years in office.

In 2012 he published La Paz Golf Club 100 Years of History, a book with photographs by Patricio Crooker and archive images that covers the centenary of one of the oldest sports institutions in the country.

In 2013 he published La Sirena y el Charango, Ensayo sobre el Mestizaje, a study on the issue of miscegenation in Bolivia. It emphasizes the crucial importance of the colonial period to understand the birth of the mestizo culture in Bolivia.

In 2014 he published A Brief History of Public Policies in Bolivia, a summary of public policies throughout our history, from the pre-Hispanic to the republican era of Bolivia.

In 2014 he published Soliloquio del Conquistador. Mesa's first novel. It recounts a trip to Peru on the day Cajamarca fell, the adventures of the Pizarro brothers and on the horizon the word of the mestizo son of Hernán Cortés and Marina-Malinche.

In 2016 he published History of the Bolivian Sea, a comprehensive journey through history that demonstrates Bolivia's close link with the sea from the pre-Hispanic period to today. In addition to following up chronologically (pre-Hispanic period, colony and republic), the work has parts dedicated to the context of each relevant moment in the complex relationship with Chile and also with Peru. Special emphasis is placed on the first war with Chile (1836-1839), the War of the Pacific, the 1904 Treaty and all of the country's foreign policy from 1910 until the lawsuit filed before the International Court of Justice in The Hague..

In 2017 he published Bolivia 1982-2006 Democracia, a historical analysis that seeks a comprehensive understanding of the political process 1982-2006, the true moment of the conquest of democracy in Bolivia.

In 2018, together with Pedro Susz, Alfonso Gumucio, Andrés Laguna and Santiago Espinoza, he published History of Bolivian Cinema 1897-2017. These pages are told with a comprehensive look at 120 years of the history of the seventh Bolivian art.

In 2019 he published La palabra y la plot, essays on Bolivian literature, is a compendium of essays written by Mesa over more than four decades, after his graduation from literature. The book develops a chronological sequence of the fundamental referents of Bolivian literature from the colonial period to the 21st century.

Books he coordinated

• El Salto al Futuro, La Paz 1995, edition of the Bolivian Federation of Football, 220 pp. con il.
• La Paz 450 Years, La Paz 1998, edition of the H. Alcaldía Municipal de La Paz, dos tomos 264 and 332 pp. con il.
• Bolivia the Millennium, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz 1999, publishing Canelas and publishing house El Deber, 263 pp. con il.
• The Blue Book, the Bolivian Maritime Demand, La Paz 2004, edition of the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 163 pp. con il.
• The Book of the Sea, La Paz 2014, edition of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Strategic Directorate of Maritime Reivindication (DIREMAR), 158 pp. con il.

Philanthropy

He was president of the Community Foundation (2007-2014), an organization whose objective is to contribute to the strengthening of democratic institutions and human rights, and general director of the television production company Plano Medio.

Statistician and sports leader

Between 1981 and 1991 he was a director and vice president (1986) of the Always Ready Club, a two-time national soccer champion.

In 1996 he was part of the Bolivian commission that managed to eliminate the FIFA veto on La Paz, for the defense of Bolivia's right to play international soccer at high altitudes.

A soccer fan, he and his son Borja Ignacio have a blog about the history of this sport in Bolivia.

Public office and political life

Carlos Mesa, Vice President of Bolivia (2002).

Vice President of the Republic

He entered politics for the first time in 2002 as a candidate for vice president of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, forming the pairing of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR). The MNR won the elections by a narrow majority, forcing it to make an alliance with the Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR). Social discontent provoked a barrage of popular mobilizations (January, February and October 2003), which culminated in the resignation of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and the subsequent inauguration of Carlos Mesa Gisbert as constitutional successor on October 17, 2003. crisis (September-October 2003) was known in Bolivia as the gas war.

President of Bolivia

Carlos Mesa became president of Bolivia at the age of 50.

Mesa enjoyed popularity during his almost two-year tenure (62% support on average), which fell to 50% during the crisis. He carried out a referendum on gas under pressure from various social sectors. In international politics, he responded to Chile's Bolivian demand for free and sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean, which he lost in the war of 1879. During his government, the Political Constitution of the State was reformed, which was a precursor to the Constituent Assembly of the year 2006, promoted by Evo Morales where the constitution of Bolivia was drastically changed. During the last months of his government, he received constant pressure from social movements. He finally leaves the presidency on June 9, after writing 3 letters of resignation and in a situation of social and political crisis.

Spokesperson for the maritime lawsuit between Bolivia and Chile before the ICJ (Hague)

In 2013, the government of Evo Morales initiated an international lawsuit before the International Court of Justice, with the aim of forcing Chile to negotiate a sovereign access to the sea for Bolivia, based on the commitments that the former formally acquired with the second between 1920 and 1983. The following year, Morales invited Mesa to be the spokesperson for his country in the maritime lawsuit.

Mesa announced on October 6, 2018 his presidential candidacy for the 2019 elections with the support of the Left Revolutionary Front (FRI). to later form the alliance with sectors of civil society, the group Sovereignty and Freedom from the department of La Paz and the TODOS group from the department of Tarija to form Citizen Community.

Race for the Presidency

On November 27, 2018, Carlos Mesa introduced Gustavo Pedraza as his running mate for the vice presidency in the 2019 primary elections.

After fraud was detected according to the OAS report in the 2019 Bolivian general election that proclaimed a victory for Morales, while Mesa and his Comunidad Ciudadana coalition finished second, sparked an intense protest across the country, which They requested a repetition of the elections, and after the request for the resignation of various sectors, including the Armed Forces, Evo Morales, Vice President García Linera and his entire cabinet resigned. The country entered a critical process without a visible head of executive government, which led to the senator of the Social Democratic Movement party, Jeanine Áñez, assuming the succession as interim president of Bolivia after a session without a sufficient quorum, but endorsed by the TCP. The Legislative Assembly controlled by the MAS annulled the elections of October 20, 2019, elected a new Supreme Electoral Tribunal that announced the holding of elections for May 2020.

On January 24, 2020, Mesa wrote on her social media. "We registered the Alianza Comunidad Ciudadana that will participate in the May elections. Firmness, conviction and certainty in the face of a challenge that we will once again overcome,' the candidate maintained. After the elections were postponed several times as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the elections were finally held in October, in which he was defeated by the MAS candidate, Luis Arce.

Election results

Year	Formula		Party/Alliance	First round			Balance			Outcome	Legislators		Note
	Chairman	Vice-Chairman		Votes	%	Place	Votes	%	Place		Senators	Deputies
2002	Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada	Carlos Mesa	MNR	624.126	22.46 %	1	84	54.2%	1	Yes. electorate	11/27	36/130	Second round of balloting in the Assembly
2019	Carlos Mesa	Gustavo Pedraza	CC	2.240.920	36.51 %	2°	-	-	-	Cancellation	14/36	50/130	Political crisis in Bolivia of 2019
2020	Carlos Mesa	Gustavo Pedraza	CC	1.775.953	28.83 %	2°	-	-	-	No. electorate	11/36	39/130	-

Filmography

Year	Movie	Director	Producer	Narration
2009	The Conquest of Democracy	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	1986: The March for Life	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	The Sons of the Sun	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	The Constitution	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	Patiño: The Devil Metal	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	Gas: Blessing or Curse?	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	1982-1989 Siles and Peace: Two Contrared Destinations	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	Walter Guevara: Reason or Pragmatism	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	Che: Lives and Deaths	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	El Golpe de García Mesa	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	"Tata" Winds	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.
2009	Peace Estenssoro: The Politics, The Art of Possible	Yes.	Yes.	Yes.

Works

• Cine Boliviano, from the director to the critic, co-author, Editorial Gisbert, La Paz, 1979.
• Bolivian cinema according to Luis Espinal, Editorial Don Bosco, La Paz, 1982.
• Presidents of Bolivia: between polls and riflesGisbert, 1983.
• Manual de Historia de Bolivia, co-author with Humberto Vázquez Machicado, José de Mesa, Teresa Gisbert, Gisbert, 1983.
• The Adventure of Bolivian Film 1952-1985Gisbert, 1985.
• A Gypsy debatewith Mario Rueda Peña and contributions by Luis Ramiro Beltrán and Alfonso Gumucio; PAT, 1991.
• 'Nearby', a decade of talks in democracyPAT, 1993.
• La Epopeya del Football Boliviano 1896-1994 (pdf). PAT, La Paz, 389 pp. 1994.
• Territories of freedomPAT, 1995.
• History of Boliviawith José de Mesa and Teresa Gisbert, Gisbert, 1997.
• The sword in the word, columns written between 1995 and 2000; Aguilar, La Paz, 2000.
• The vice president, the shadow of power?, with Luis Ossio, Mariano Baptista, Mario Serrafero, José Antonio Rivera and Carlos Cordero; Library and Archive of Congress, 2003.
• Chair besieged, memories of his passing through power; Plural and Fundación Comunidad, 2008.
• La Paz Golf Club, 100 years of history, 2012.
• The mermaid and the charango, essay on mestizaje, Editorial Gisbert and Fundación Comunidad, 2013.
• Brief History of Public Policy in Bolivia, Gisbert, 2014.
• Soliloquie of the conqueror, novel, Editorial EDAF and Universidad de Las Américas Puebla, 2014.
• The history of the Bolivian sea. The long way home, includes Bolivia's final submissions at the Hague in March 2018, Editorial Gisbert, 2018.