Bolivian vote challenges president’s populist agenda
By DAN KEANE, Associated Press Writer
28 minutes ago
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales faced an invigorated state autonomy movement that could cripple his populist agenda after a vote by Bolivia’s largest and richest state for greater freedom from his central government.
With local exit polls Sunday showing the Santa Cruz referendum would pass in a landslide, Morales denounced the vote but quickly invited state governors for further negotiations.
The eastern lowland state of Santa Cruz, a stronghold of conservative anti-Morales opposition, called the referendum in hopes of separating its native freewheeling capitalism and mixed-blood heritage from Morales’ vision of a communal state ruled by Indian values.
The spreading autonomy movement has replaced traditional political parties as Morales’ chief opposition: Three other eastern states — Beni, Pando and Tarija — hold similar autonomy votes next month, and two more are considering such a move.
“Let’s work together tomorrow for a true autonomy,” he said in a nationally televised address following Sunday’s vote. “For the people, and not just certain groups — an autonomy that permits the people to decide their destiny.”
Santa Cruz leaders want to keep a bigger slice of the state’s key natural gas revenues to keep up with its booming population.
Its powerful business class also hopes to shelter vast soy plantations and cattle ranches from Morales’ plan to redistribute land to the poor.
Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, argues that he needs a strong central government to spread Santa Cruz’s wealth to the rest of Bolivia, South America’s poorest country.
Results will not be available for days, but local exit polls showed Sunday 85 percent of voters favored the measure. Morales claimed that as many as half the ballots were invalid, quoting media reports.
Despite the lack of official returns, Santa Cruz residents cruised the streets Sunday night honking and cheering in celebration, and local leaders declared that voters had embraced the autonomy cause.
“This is not the end of the process,” said Santa Cruz Gov. Ruben Costas, addressing supporters gathered under the palm trees in the central plaza of the state’s namesake capital city. “With your vote, we have begun the most transcendental reform in national memory.”
No one is clear exactly how autonomy would alter Bolivia’s heavily centralized government, which until 2005 allowed presidents to name their own political cronies as governors of Bolivia’s nine states.
The statutes up for approval Sunday create local powers common in many countries, including a state legislature and police force. But the more ambitious clauses bear the distinct ring of nationhood: control of the state’s land distribution and the right to sign international treaties, among others.
Santa Cruz leaders insist they have no intention of seceding — a move that would find precious little support on a continent packed with Morales’ leftist allies.
Morales called the measure illegal, unconstitutional and dictatorial, noting that the referendum went ahead despite an order to postpone it by Bolivia’s top electoral court.
In his television address, Morales congratulated groups of demonstrators for taking to the streets to block the vote.
Their clashes with autonomy supporters injured at least 25 people across Santa Cruz state.
The conflict was centered in the poor Santa Cruz neighborhood of Plan 3000, a bastion of Morales support populated by Indian immigrants from the poorer western highlands
Relatives of a 70-year-old man said he was killed when police fired tear gas to break up one scuffle. The death could not be confirmed by authorities.
“I want to express my respect for the people of Santa Cruz for their resistance against this separatist referendum,” said Morales, a veteran street protester. “The people are wise to defend legality, constitutionality and the struggle for equality between Bolivians.”