"Province scorns Bolivia"

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Province scorns Bolivia

May 5, 2008

By Martin Arostegui - SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia — The wealthy eastern
province of Santa Cruz defied the central government of leftist
President Evo Morales by holding a referendum on regional autonomy
that appeared to win overwhelming approval yesterday.

Exit polls showed the referendum passing with 85 percent support in an
election marred by clashes between supporters and opponents of the
vote, which Mr. Morales had called illegal.

Official results will not be available for days.

"Totalitarian centralism is finished in Bolivia," said Santa Cruz Gov.
Ruben Costas.

Mr. Costas called on the central government in La Paz to accept the
"new reality" of a freer and more modern country led from its
wealthier eastern lowland regions.

Mr. Morales, in an interview with the Associated Press, called the
referendum illegal, unconstitutional and dictatorial. The vote
proceeded despite an order by Bolivia's top electoral court to
postpone it.

After the vote yesterday, Mr. Morales claimed that as many as half the
ballots were invalid. He stressed that the high level of abstention,
combined with the "no" votes, robbed the referendum of any
legitimacy.

"The referendum failed completely," he said in a nationally televised
address.

He also called for dialogue with opposition governors pushing for
autonomy.

"Let's work together tomorrow for a true autonomy," he said. "For the
people, and not just certain groups — an autonomy that permits the
people to decide their destiny."

A celebratory mood in the provincial capital, also called Santa Cruz,
belied outbreaks of violence elsewhere and the threat of more violence
to come.

Green-and-white provincial flags fluttered from cars in a city painted
with pro-autonomy graffiti and anti-Morales slogans.

Mr. Costas said the first move of a new regional government would be
to call elections for a local "legislative assembly" to enact locally
drafted statutes and assume "important decisions."

Neighboring eastern provinces of Tarija, Beni and Pando are holding
referendums for self-rule next month, and petition drives for similar
moves are proceeding in Chuquisaca and Cochabamba.

As Mr. Costas spoke, more than 5,000 militants of Mr. Morales' ruling
Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party blockaded key choke points,
preventing people from voting. Voting stations and ballot boxes were
destroyed in the towns of Yapacani and San Julian.

Several Santa Cruz suburbs reported similar attacks against polling
places by armed Indian mobs led by local MAS officials.

Witnesses said that some of the MAS supporters were armed with
machetes, handguns and dynamite.

At least 20 people were reported injured. An unconfirmed report said a
70-year-old man was killed.

The referendum calls for the creation of a state legislature and state
police. It also would wrest control of the state's considerable
natural gas reserves from the central government.

In addition, it would block Mr. Morales' plans to seize huge soy
plantations, cattle ranches and other large landholdings and give them
to peasant collectives.

Long isolated from Bolivia's high-altitude capital of La Paz, rural
Santa Cruz has sought greater self-rule for generations. But the
autonomy movement took off after Mr. Morales' 2005 election as
Bolivia's first Indian president.

Mr. Morales, a close ally of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez,
is attempting to nationalize the nation's energy reserves, giant
landholdings and other resources located mainly in the east.

His goal is to redistribute the region's wealth to poor, mainly Indian
populations in Andean highlands of the west. The effort has
exacerbated ethnic tensions with easterners, most of whom have some
European ancestry.

For yesterday's vote, a hastily improvised local security force
replaced national police, who reportedly had been ordered by Mr.
Morales to withhold protection from polling places.

Concentric rings of local gendarmes and a ''civil guard'' composed of
pro-autonomy militants from the regional capital clashed with central
government groups that turned up at several polling stations,
demanding that the voting cease.

Interior Minister Alfredo Rada blamed the violence on pro-autonomy
leaders.

He said that central government peasant supporters were attacked by
pro-autonomy Santa Cruz youths.

"Death to Governor Ruben Costas," cried a peasant leader addressing a
massive rally in La Paz.

Threats to lynch government opponents reverberated at another rally in
Cochabamba, where Mr. Morales was scheduled to speak.

''We have been receiving a high volume of threats,'' Mr. Costas told
The Washington Times. "Life for my family has become hell."

The president of the local chamber of commerce, Gabriel Dabdoub,
showed on television a severed goat's head he said he received at his
doorstep, with a note ordering him to leave Bolivia.

Other central government opponents reported persistent telephone
threats.

A Santa Cruz newspaper editor said she has become particularly
terrified by text messages that give details of her daughter's school
schedule.

"We will not be intimidated from achieving our goal of creating an
autonomic model for all of Bolivia," said Mr. Costas, who blames the
campaign of violence and harassment on some of Mr. Morales' chief
advisers.
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