Eduardo Rodriguez, president of the Supreme Court will take the job vacated by President Carlos Mesa, a journo source tells me.

Forecast: this won’t satisfy the angry mobs of Evo Morales and worse.

UPDATE: Confirmed, hot off the press.

UPDATE: And Rodriguez is calling for early elections. In the fervor of the moment, this could mean Bolivia will have a President Evo Morales. And that should be the end of Bolivia getting a new president every year.

Alvaro at BLOG DE BOLIVIA informs us that Evo Morales is not impressed and intends to continue civil disobedience. He also warns that Rodriguez must call new elections in 150 days and there is a dangerous chance that Bolivia will end up with its own Hugo Chavez nightmare as president.

Miguel at MABB has a tremendous don’t-miss roundup on what’s happening on the ground around the country. The Marxist and indigenous groups seem to be unified in their cry against Senate President Hormando Vaca Diez who has since declined the presidency. How this will play out, whether it will deflate the energy of these groups is too soon to tell now. But he reports trouble in Santa Cruz and the rest of the country, including the tranquil places, with the Santa Cruz bishop pleading for peace and the churches full of people on their knees praying for it. Meanwhile, there seems to be some confrontation possible on the road to Santa Cruz between the self-defense forces and the Evo Morales supporters marching on the city in the hopes of starving it into submission. Don’t miss this roundup, it’s excellent.

Miguel at CIAO! has lots more colorful detail about miners trading dynamite for army bullets, another item not to be missed. He says that the protests are so intense in La Paz that the most of the capital might end up being Sucre, it’s that bad.

Eduardo at BARRIO FLORES has more excellent material with translations on who the new president is, Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze.

My own comment: R0driguez has a bonafide legal background with an advanced Harvard degree that seems to pin him as a technocrat, not necessarily good. Some are why their countries are in trouble in the first place. It does not tell much about his political beliefs, but he is a nice-looking man. It’s unseemly to judge people by appearances but Vaca Diez by comparison reminded me of Carlos Salinas Gortari and Alvaro Noboa, a crook and a pinhead, making me uneasy. Meanwhile, the Rodriguez bio shows he has taught at the Catholic university in Bolivia, which in Latam is the most prestigious school. He’s elite, and this ought to give him trouble with Evo Morales. I also suspect he will be weak in the face of Morales out of whatever the Latin American equivalent there is of ‘liberal guilt.’

Eduardo at BARRIO FLORES also has a minute by minute account of events leading up to Rodriguez’s swearing in. He notes that an Indian woman hugs Vaca Diez on the way out, easing his own cynicism a little. He thinks it’s time for the mobs to show some good faith. Be sure to read the whole thing, it’s good.

Eduardo at BARRIO FLORES also has some insight on the remarkable restraint of the police forces, saying it could have been so much worse than it has been.

Jim at LIFE IN BOLIVIA says he got out of the country alive and provides a harrowing account of his escape to Peru from the turmoil.