Carlos Mesa

Carlos Diego Mesa Gisbert (born 12 August 1953) is a Bolivian historian, journalist, and politician who served as the 63rd president of Bolivia from 2003 to 2005. Mesa previously served as the 37th vice president from 2002 to 2003.

We are at the beginning, on the threshold of a new time and that new time has to have a new leadership.

Quotes

• Our maximum responsibility is to act with intellectual honesty in what we believe and to work in a dialectical process in which the end result is something we build, not something we just destroy.
  • Address to the H. National Congress, 6 August 2002.
• A few days ago, my country lived through serious episodes of violence, which have forced us to reflect. We are aware of the fact that the last 21 years of democracy — the longest uninterrupted period in our history — are at stake as we face the legitimate pressure exercised by the marginalized sectors of our society, who deserve our attention. [...] Loss of trust in these essential elements of democracy is one of the greatest dangers to the future of our society.
  • Address to the 58th United Nations General Assembly, 24 September 2003.
• Bolivia is not yet a country of equals.
  • Inaugural address to the H. National Congress, 17 October 2003.
• It is very comfortable to coup the government, it is the most comfortable thing in the world, it is a very profitable business, it is practiced every day [...]. This is the country of ultimatums, this is the country of "if you don't do this I am very sorry but you will have consequences", this is the country of people who get involved with dynamite to demand that we do whatever comes to their mind, good, bad or fair. I am not going to continue with that logic, because Bolivia cannot be governed by that logic.
  • Resignation speech, 6 March 2005.
• We are at the beginning, on the threshold of a new time and that new time has to have a new leadership.
  • Presidential campaign announcement, 6 October 2019.

Besieged Presidency (2010)

• [The vice presidency is] "the most stupid position of all" [...]. An office with a single objective, that of succession, with few clear powers.
  • Page 33
• I am not a person that you can handle as you please, I am not going to respond to things that I do not believe in, I am not going to accept doing things that I do not think I should do. I am not controllable, Carlos.
  • To Carlos Sánchez Berzaín. Page 39
• I am not a friend of demagogic positions and easy answers. My historical and ethical conviction is unalterable, but as a responsible citizen and much more as the president of Bolivians, my obligation is to reconcile the issues of principle with the demands of reality.
  • 6 February 2004. Page 49
• Politics is not the art of ethics.
  • Page 105
• Sánchez de Lozada sought to impose constitutional order and consolidate democracy with force. The result was a country on the brink of war [...].
  • Page 106
• Writing is for me like breathing.
  • Page 117