More on Bolivia

Yesterday I wrote about the land reform bill passed by the Bolivian senate, and now signed by President Morales. The update today is that the two assistants voted in place of their respective senators, though it is not clear why the senators themselves did not vote. From the Associated Press:

The reform's rocky passage in the Senate could also hamper Morales' effort. The president relied on votes cast by two absent senators' assistants to pass the controversial bill, granting the opposition legal leverage to question the law's validity.

Former Bolivian President Jorge Quiroga, leader of the conservative party Podemos, which led the Senate boycott, said Wednesday that Morales' tactics were "contemptible and disgusting, both legally and morally."

Podemos has accused the senators' assistants of accepting government bribes to pass the law. On Wednesday, the assistants were being guarded by police for their safety.

So the plot thickens. Did those two senators want to vote for the bill, or were the assistants paid off?