Bolivian regions shun Morales with autonomy drive

By Helen Popper

LA PAZ, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Four Bolivian provinces forged ahead with plans for regional autonomy on Saturday in a challenge to President Evo Morales that has raised fears of political turmoil in South America's poorest country.

While rightists in the opposition-led regions put the finishing touches on plans for greater independence from the central government, thousands of Morales supporters wearing ponchos and banging drums marched in the capital of La Paz to celebrate the writing of a new constitution.

Led by the economic hub of Santa Cruz, the provinces bitterly oppose the new constitution and are making separate declarations of autonomy.

In Santa Cruz, hunger strikers called off their days-old protest and prepared to celebrate the declaration of autonomy at a mass rally in a city park. Similar events were planned in the provinces of Beni, Pando and natural gas-rich Tarija.

"I feel proud ... I don't want my children to grow up in a communist country," one middle-aged Santa Cruz resident told local television.

Street vendors were doing a brisk trade in the green-and-white regional flag and the city was calm, though an explosion apparently caused by a Molotov cocktail shook the main court building, local television reported. No injuries were reported.

Morales' constitutional reform has deepened long-running divisions between the more indigenous highlands and the more affluent east.

Leaders of the four lowland regions, home to Bolivia's natural gas fields and agricultural industry, have called the new constitution an illegal power grab since the reforms were passed by Morales supporters during an opposition boycott.

Tensions have risen in the days before Saturday's declarations of autonomy. Morales, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, has ruled out declaring martial law.

But government officials have said force could be used if any attempt is made to divide the country, one South America's most unstable.

As local committees in the four opposition regions voted on their plans to assume new powers, presidential spokesman Alex Contreras branded the so-called autonomy statutes "illegal and unconstitutional."

Their autonomy plans outline greater powers on issues ranging from education to control over natural resources. The documents will be put to regional referendum votes before they take effect, local media said. (Editing by Hilary Burke and Doina Chiacu)