Bolivia's wealthiest regions to march for autonomy

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia, Dec 15 (Reuters) Leaders of Bolivia's richest provinces planned massive street protests today to demand greater regional autonomy but these opponents of President Evo Morales denied wanting a breakaway state.

Leaders in the eastern Santa Cruz region said they expected a million people to take to the streets of its main city, Santa Cruz, to press demands for greater autonomy from the central government and more control of local taxes.

Leftist Morales, the country's first indigenous president, has accused the pro-autonomy drive of being led by a ''racist right'' opposed to his reforms and intent on splitting Bolivia, the poorest country in South America.

''Those are misinterpretations, bogus messages... we're not doing this with that spirit, we don't want to break away,'' said German Antelo, of the Pro Santa Cruz Committee.

Santa Cruz is an opposition stronghold and many of its people feel they have little in common with the poor west of the country, where Morales has his support base.

''Santa Cruz is different to the Andes, it's another country,'' said taxi driver Juan Carlos Balderrama. ''People talk differently, people think differently, people dress differently, it looks more like a Brazilian city.'' Opposition to some Morales policies, such as his plan to redistribute idle farmland to peasants, is stronger in the east, while the western provinces, largely populated by Aymara and Quechua Indians, strongly support his policies.

Demonstrations were also planned in three other eastern provinces. Morales supporters vowed to stage counter-protests.

Morales, who once led protests himself as a leader of a coca-farmers group, has threatened to send the army to defiant regions if they go ahead with what he describes as a secessionist movement.

Demands for autonomy in Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and natural gas-rich Tarija -- four of Bolivia's nine regions -- have dogged Morales since he took office in January.

A majority of people in the four regions voted in a July referendum to give their local leaders more control over political and economic affairs.

Bolivia is roughly divided along ethnic and economic lines, with the resource-rich eastern lowlands home to more European-descended people, while the indigenous majority, who are relatively poorer, populate the western Andean plateau.

Balderrama, the taxi driver, said he thought the protests had been organized by a wealthy elite who ''don't want the preferential treatment they've always had to disappear.'' REUTERS PDS PM0121

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