Two Bolivians killed, 70 injured in street battles

LA PAZ, Jan 12 (Reuters) Two people were killed and more than 70 injured as supporters of leftist President Evo Morales and political opponents battled each other with guns, sticks and rocks on the streets of Cochabamba in central Bolivia.

Fighting broke out when supporters of Gov. Manfredo Reyes Villa entered downtown Cochabamba, 275 miles (440 km) east of La Paz, which had been occupied since Monday by thousands of protesters demanding he step down.

Reyes Villa is at odds with the national government over his plans to call a referendum on regional autonomy.

The protests against him are organized by supporters of Morales, the country's first indigenous president. Morales is highly popular in the Cochabamba region, where he first came to prominence leading protests by farmers of coca, the main ingredient for cocaine.

State-owned television network TV7 said two people, one of them a coca-leaf farmer, were killed, but it was not immediately clear how.

Television images showed hundreds of men running through the streets of Cochabamba, some carrying sticks, as onlookers applauded from windows of buildings and police in riot-gear fired tear gas. One man sat on a curb with his face and shirt covered in blood.

TV7 reported the government sent in the army to prevent further bloodshed and that one of Cochabamba's main hospitals, Viedma, was overloaded with more than 70 injured people, two with bullet wounds.

Reyes Villa told a press conference that Morales was directly responsible for the bloodshed for not asking his supporters to give up in their protest.

Bolivia's recent history has been plagued by massive street protests. Disagreements over how best to exploit the country's natural gas reserves, increased rights for the Indian majority, and greater autonomy for regional governments, led to uprisings that toppled President Sanchez de Lozada in 2003 and his successor Carlos Mesa in June 2005.

Anti-Reyes Villa protesters had blocked off roads to Cochabamba for three days. Earlier this week, Morales backers set fire to the governor's office, sparking scuffles with the police that injured more than 20 people.

''I don't have a reason to resign. I demand the will of my voters be respected,'' Reyes Villa, one of Bolivia's first elected governors, told ATB television network yesterday.

The balance of power between the provinces and the national government has caused conflict in South America's poorest country, where autonomy advocates in wealthier eastern regions staged widespread protests and a hunger strike last month.

Six of the country's nine governors, including Reyes Villa, belong to opposition parties, and most of them have joined together to demand more independence from the central government.

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