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Bolivian provinces strike over reforms
AP/Dado Galdieri
Protesters shout slogans against the government of Bolivia's President Evo Morales during a strike in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2007.SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia
Petroleumworld.com 11 29 07
Six of Bolivia's nine provinces staged a general strike Wednesday to protest the rewriting of the constitution, a cornerstone of leftist President Evo Morales' reform agenda.
The 24-hour strike called by local leaders of the opposition-led provinces paralyzed several cities in the striking regions, where most of the South American country's wealth is concentrated.
Despite fears that the strike might lead to violence after weekend clashes between protesters and police left three people dead in the city of Sucre, there were only a few isolated incidents in the striking provinces, which came to a standstill.
A decision Wednesday by the national Congress in La Paz to take budget resources away from provinces to finance retirement funds raised the tension in Santa Cruz, Tarija, Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, Beni and Pando, the provinces taking part in the strike.
The Congress also approved a motion allowing the assembly that is rewriting the constitution to hold its sessions anywhere in Bolivia, and not just in Sucre as initially planned.
This was certain to further infuriate the opposition, which wants the colonial city to regain the status as sole capital it lost to La Paz in the 19th century after a civil war.
" There will be violence, there will be clashes," said opposition lawmaker Fernando Messmer.Morales further angered landowners by signing a decree Wednesday expropriating 180,000 hectares of land in the Chuquisaca province to be given to indigenous Guarani people, who he said were allegedly living in "a situation of captivity."
The ABI state news agency, which reported the decree, provided no details about the Guarani's condition or about the owner of the expropriated land.
In the city of Cochabamba, Morales supporters complained that heavy machinery belonging to the local government was used to set up barricades in support of the strike.
Later in the day, Santa Cruz civic leader Branco Marinkovic called for civic resistance aganst the Morales administration, ratcheting up the tone.
" Today we decide to move on to a state of mobilized resistance within a peaceful and democratic framework," Marinkovic told a crowd, standing alongside Santa Cruz Governor Ruben Costas.
The increasingly volatile situation in Bolivia has drawn appeals for calm from the United States, the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
The weekend clashes in Sucre started after the Constituent Assembly, packed with Morales supporters, approved the outlines of the new draft constitution on Saturday.
Opposition lawmakers have boycotted the assembly, accusing Morales of trying to grab more power through the constitutional reforms.
Bolivia's former president Jorge Quiroga, a key opposition figure, claimed the proposed constitution was "drafted in a barracks, written with rifles and bayonets, and stained with the blood of the people of Sucre."
Officials say the draft constitution eventually will be put to a referendum, but have yet to set a date for the vote.
Opposition leaders claim the changes were inspired by Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez, who had a new constitution adopted in 1999 and will put further amendments to the vote on Sunday.
Story from AFP 26 2312 GMT 11 07
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