MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian president announces Cabinet reshuffle.

Faced with resignations by several Cabinet ministers, Bolivian President Carlos Mesa reorganized his administration Tuesday night.

The Cabinet reshuffling was carried out in an official ceremony in the Government Palace after a tense day filled with rumors concerning the administration's new look and the country's energy policy.

Three new government ministers were appointed, one was moved to another ministry and three presidential delegations with ministerial rank were eliminated and one such delegation created.

The most notable change was the moving of Economic Development Minister Xavier Nogales to the Mining and Oil Ministry, to replace Antonio Aranibar, who stepped down Monday, the event that triggered the Cabinet shakeup.

Aranibar, who had been on Mesa's Cabinet since March 12, came under attack because he was foreign minister during deposed President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's first administration - 1993 to 1997 - when he signed the contracts to partially privatize the largest of the country's state-owned firms.

Criticism of Aranibar increased recently after President Mesa asked him to negotiate a contract to export natural gas to Argentina, just as the unions and grassroots groups that last fall forced an early end to Sanchez de Lozada's second term are impatiently awaiting a referendum on the future of the country's energy reserves.

Mesa appointed Aranibar on March 12 after the former mining and oil minister, Alvaro Rios, abruptly resigned to avoid congressional censure.

The new faces in the Cabinet are Gustavo Pedraza Merida, who will take over the Sustainable Development Ministry, new Economic Development Minister Horst Grebe Lopez and Indigenous Affairs Minister Ricardo Calla Ortega.

During the swearing-in ceremony, Mesa announced that in the next few hours he would determine the date of the popular referendum in which the citizenry will decide the fate of the country's natural gas reserves. Holding the referendum was one of the promises he had made upon assuming office last October.

The president also said he would send to Congress on Wednesday a bill to modify the Hydrocarbons Law, another of his public commitments.

Mesa became president last Oct. 17, after Sanchez de Lozada was driven from office by a wave of violent nationwide protests in which at least 58 people died and scores were injured.