OAS supports Bolivian territorial integrity, doesn't denounce referendum

The Organization of American States expressed support for Bolivia's territorial integrity and called for dialogue in the deeply divided nation ahead of a autonomy referendum this weekend in the eastern province of Santa Cruz.

But the resolution adopted after midnight Friday, after seven hours of talks, did not denounce the holding of the referendum as leftist President Evo Morales's government had demanded.

It instead expressed the OAS's support for the Bolivian government, democratic institutions and the elected authorities and called on the Morales administration and Santa Cruz officials to enter into a dialogue "in order to find a constitutional and democratic solution to the conflict."

The document was adopted after the OAS's secretary of political affairs, former Argentine Foreign Minister Dante Caputo, expressed his fear that the crisis in Bolivia could spill over into violence on the streets between Morales's indigenous supporters and autonomy supporters in the relatively affluent, mostly mestizo province of Santa Cruz.

Shortly before the OAS resolution was announced, Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca had reiterated the willingness of the Morales administration to engage in dialogue while accusing Santa Cruz authorities of refusing to enter into any type of negotiations.

"The doors to dialogue that President Evo Morales has opened have been blocked," he said.

More than 1,000 Morales supporters gathered Friday at a plaza in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz and threatened that they would not allow the autonomy referendum to be held in rural areas.

"We don't want bloodshed, but those responsible are going to be the governor and (other local leaders)," peasant leader Fidel Surco said.

Authorities in Santa Cruz, Bolivia's wealthiest region and an area rich in natural gas, plan to implement a statute that will give the province more control over security, energy reserves and local finances. The statute being put up for a vote Sunday would also allow direct election of the governor, taking away the president's power to appoint regional leaders.

Morales says the referendum is illegal and that he will not recognize any autonomy statutes approved in the balloting in Santa Cruz or in future plebiscites scheduled for later in the year in other opposition-led provinces.

Especially contentious issues are Morales's efforts to seize large landholdings and exert greater state control over gas reserves.

It was nearly two years ago that Morales, a socialist and the first indigenous president of this Indian-majority country, issued a decree "nationalizing" Bolivia's fossil fuels, although that move is better described as a sweeping reform of taxes and royalties to capture a much bigger share of the revenues generated by the poor Andean nation's massive reserves of natural gas. EFE

ojl/mc