Carlos Mesa (12 August 1953-) was President of Bolivia from 17 October 2003 to 9 June 2005, succeeding Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and preceding Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze.
Biography[]
Carlos Diego de Mesa Gisbert was born in La Paz, Bolivia in 1953, and he worked as a journalist before becoming Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's running mate in the 2002 presidential election. The center-left Mesa broke with the center-right Sanchez over his handling of the Bolivian gas conflict, and he assumed the presidency after protests forced Sanchez to resign. Mesa was broadly popular, but he was devoid of parliamentary support and could not enact his policy agenda. He resigned in 2005 after failing to quell Evo Morales' socialist unrest, and he briefly withdrew from politics and served as the international spokesman for the country's maritime lawsuit against Chile before the International Court of Justice from 2014 to 2018. In 2019, he ran for President in opposition to Morales, winning an election rife with irregularities. He later emerged as the leader of the opposition under Luis Arce's regime.