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Bolivia: unrest won't stop South American summit
AFP
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia
Petroleumworld.com 12 08 06
The second South American presidential summit will go ahead for two days as planned in Cochabamba, despite growing unrest in Bolivia, President Evo Morales said Thursday.
The Friday-Saturday meeting will study an ambitious regional energy-sharing plan as a first step towards "creating a great South American community," Morales said, dismissing the disturbances as mere bumps in the road.
"Every change process has some obstacles ... groups who defend their interests ... who want to harm the image of our country, our government," the leftist president said as conservative forces stepped up their opposition to his proposed social and economic reforms.
Ruben Costas, governor of Santa Cruz, the country's richest province, launched a hunger strike Monday against a series of constitutional reforms Morales followers are trying to push through a constitutional assembly after changing the voting rules in their favor.
About 400 people inside the governor's offices and in a main square of Santa Cruz capital have also stopped eating in support of Costas' protest, as have the governors of northern Beni and Pando provinces.
The protest movement hit a snag on Tuesday in La Paz province, when Morales supporters forced a group of hunger strikers to leave a Roman Catholic church and took Governor Jose Luis Paredes hostage for a few hours.
On Wednesday, Morales followers broke into the studios of two television stations in La Paz they claim were supporting the "oligarchy," while in Santa Cruz a human rights activist was called an "Indian lover" and beaten up by a some right-wing students.
The unrest has also spilled over to Congress where lawmakers have split into two groups, with members of Morales' majority Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) and opposition party members meeting in separate halls.
Confrontation already reached the boiling point on November 28, when Morales signed into law a sweeping agrarian reform bill that distributes land to the poor, setting off anger among landowners.
Many opposition politicians and businessmen fear Morales will take Bolivia down the path to socialism, linking hands with other leftist leaders recently elected in Latin America.
As Bolivia's first indigenous president, Morales has moved swiftly after taking office in January to make good on campaign promises to improve social justice in a society long dominated by the legacy of European colonialism.The summit will gather an estimated 3,000 people and all heads of government from the region except Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, Morales said.
However, perhaps because of the unrest in the country, only four South American presidents -- Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador and Guyana -- have so far confirmed their participation at the summit in writing, officials said.
AFP 07 2053 GMT 12 06
Copyright© 2001 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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