MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian President announced his resignation

Carlos Mesa, Bolivia's president, offered to resign on Monday night after just 19 months in office, amid massive street protests against the government's energy policies that have paralysed the country in recent weeks.

"This is as far as I can go," Mr Mesa, a former television presenter, said in a nationally broadcast address. "It is my decision as president to present my resignation."

If Mr Mesa leaves office, he will be the second leader in the troubled Andean region to be pushed out in less than three months, following the ousting of Lucio Gutiérrez as president of Ecuador in April.

Many observers criticised Mr Mesa's inactivity for the recent unrest. Protests have been mounting since last month when he refused to comment on a controversial hydrocarbons bill that had angered international energy companies, instead allowing Congress to sign the legislation into law.

That earned him the enmity of the legislature, whose leaders condemned Mr Mesa for washing his hands of the debate. It also provoked exasperation among the middle class, who had previously backed Mr Mesa about the apparent lack of effective government.

Since the law was passed, Bolivia's radical left-wing social movements have blocked roads across the country and held violent protests in the capital, demanding the nationalisation of the country's gas reserves and the convening of an assembly to rewrite the country's constitution. On Monday, as the demonstrations raged in the centre of La Paz, Mr Mesa was evacuated from the presidential palace to a secret location.

Evo Morales, who heads the Movement to Socialism, Bolivia's biggest opposition party, on Monday explicitly called for Mr Mesa to step down. The wealthy eastern departments of Santa Cruz and Tarija - where Mr Mesa is extremely unpopular - have also been demanding early elections and a referendum on regional autonomy.

Foreign investors in Bolivia's gas sector - the second largest in South America after Venezuela - such as Petrobras, Total and British Gas, had threatened to retaliate against the hydrocarbons law, which they said was confiscatory and illegally breached the terms of 40-year contracts signed in the 1990s. Last week Repsol, the biggest investor, said legal action against Bolivia was inevitable.

Mr Mesa became president following the departure of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, his predecessor, in October 2003 amid violent protests sparked by plans to export Bolivian gas through Chile, the country's historic rival.

This year, his administration has lurched from crisis to crisis, most of them over the gas issue. Mr Mesa threatened to step down twice in March, but were rejected by Congress. But this time it seems more likely that he will have to follow through on his offer, as he has few friends left in the legislature.

Under the terms of Bolivia's constitution, the presidency would pass to the heads of the Senate and the lower house, and after them to the president of the Supreme Court, who would be likely to set a date for fresh elections. If that happens, the elections will be only for the presidency and vice-presidency and not for Congressional seats.

It is far from clear whether the pro-nationalisation protests will end if Mr Mesa does step down. It is also uncertain if Mr Mesa's departure would resolve the political gridlock in Bolivia.

Alvaro García, a political analyst, told Bolivia's El Diario newspaper that rather than Mr Mesa's resignation, "what we need is a fundamental resolution of the problems affecting the country, otherwise this lack of governability will continue."

At a meeting of the Organisation of American States in Florida, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, on Monday singled out Bolivia and Ecuador as countries in the region that needed help in overcoming chronic instability.