Bolivia's Morales defiant after protests kill four
(Recasts with higher death toll and reaction)
By Carlos Quiroga
LA PAZ, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales lashed out at opponents on Monday after four people were killed in violent protests against his reforms and opposition leaders renewed threats to secede from the central government.
Violence exploded on the streets of the southern city of Sucre over the weekend after Morales' leftist allies pushed a draft of a new constitution through a constitutional assembly under military guard.
The U.S. State Department and the United Nations expressed concern over the violence and urged both sides to show restraint and tolerance.
Morales has made rewriting the constitution a pillar of his reform agenda, but the issue has deepened ethnic and regional divisions in South America's poorest country, which has a long history of political upheaval.
A close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Morales took office as Bolivia's first indigenous president in January 2006, vowing to increase state control over the economy and empower the poor, Indian majority.
He nationalized the natural gas industry and seeks to give more autonomy to indigenous groups with the new constitution.
In the opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz, the country's economic powerhouse in the east, residents rallied in the main square on Monday and voted in a public forum to authorize a civic committee to declare autonomy.
Flanked by the Santa Cruz mayor and the regional governor, Branco Marinkovic, a leader of the Santa Cruz secessionist movement, said the afternoon rally gave him "a mandate" to begin the autonomy process.
MORALES SAYS REFORMS ARE FOR ALL
The president spoke heatedly against anti-government protesters in Santa Cruz who occupied state offices and said his government was trying to work for change for everybody.
"Occupying state offices isn't democracy, civil disobedience isn't democracy, and we hope the Bolivian people ... identify these traitors, the people who are against the nation and want to damage this process of change," Morales said before thousands of followers in La Paz.
Four people were killed in the weekend's unrest in Sucre, in which demonstrators torched police stations and stormed a jail, freeing 100 inmates.
One of the dead was a policeman lynched by protesters. The other victims were civilians -- two shot dead and another dying on Monday after being badly beaten.
A funeral for two of the dead turned into an anti-government protest in Sucre, 435 miles (700 km) south of La Paz, as the government contemplated emergency measures to bring the city of 200,000 people back under control.
Morales' leftist agenda has angered opponents, who say he is only governing for his Indian power base, and protests have raged for days against the assembly writing the new constitution.
Morales is an Aymara Indian who hails from the poorer Andean west, while his conservative rivals are concentrated in the richer east and especially in the city of Santa Cruz.
The draft constitution was approved mainly with votes from Morales' party as most opposition representatives boycotted the debates to protest moving the assembly to an army compound. The draft must still go to a referendum before it can take effect.
Bolivia is South America's top natural gas exporter but it is also one of the region's most unstable countries and violent uprisings toppled governments in 2003 and 2005. (Additional reporting by David Mercado in Sucre, Sergio Burgoa in El Alto, Andres Stapff in Santa Cruz; Writing by Helen Popper and Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Kieran Murray)
By Carlos Quiroga
LA PAZ, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales lashed out at opponents on Monday after four people were killed in violent protests against his reforms and opposition leaders renewed threats to secede from the central government.
Violence exploded on the streets of the southern city of Sucre over the weekend after Morales' leftist allies pushed a draft of a new constitution through a constitutional assembly under military guard.
The U.S. State Department and the United Nations expressed concern over the violence and urged both sides to show restraint and tolerance.
Morales has made rewriting the constitution a pillar of his reform agenda, but the issue has deepened ethnic and regional divisions in South America's poorest country, which has a long history of political upheaval.
A close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Morales took office as Bolivia's first indigenous president in January 2006, vowing to increase state control over the economy and empower the poor, Indian majority.
He nationalized the natural gas industry and seeks to give more autonomy to indigenous groups with the new constitution.
In the opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz, the country's economic powerhouse in the east, residents rallied in the main square on Monday and voted in a public forum to authorize a civic committee to declare autonomy.
Flanked by the Santa Cruz mayor and the regional governor, Branco Marinkovic, a leader of the Santa Cruz secessionist movement, said the afternoon rally gave him "a mandate" to begin the autonomy process.
MORALES SAYS REFORMS ARE FOR ALL
The president spoke heatedly against anti-government protesters in Santa Cruz who occupied state offices and said his government was trying to work for change for everybody.
"Occupying state offices isn't democracy, civil disobedience isn't democracy, and we hope the Bolivian people ... identify these traitors, the people who are against the nation and want to damage this process of change," Morales said before thousands of followers in La Paz.
Four people were killed in the weekend's unrest in Sucre, in which demonstrators torched police stations and stormed a jail, freeing 100 inmates.
One of the dead was a policeman lynched by protesters. The other victims were civilians -- two shot dead and another dying on Monday after being badly beaten.
A funeral for two of the dead turned into an anti-government protest in Sucre, 435 miles (700 km) south of La Paz, as the government contemplated emergency measures to bring the city of 200,000 people back under control.
Morales' leftist agenda has angered opponents, who say he is only governing for his Indian power base, and protests have raged for days against the assembly writing the new constitution.
Morales is an Aymara Indian who hails from the poorer Andean west, while his conservative rivals are concentrated in the richer east and especially in the city of Santa Cruz.
The draft constitution was approved mainly with votes from Morales' party as most opposition representatives boycotted the debates to protest moving the assembly to an army compound. The draft must still go to a referendum before it can take effect.
Bolivia is South America's top natural gas exporter but it is also one of the region's most unstable countries and violent uprisings toppled governments in 2003 and 2005. (Additional reporting by David Mercado in Sucre, Sergio Burgoa in El Alto, Andres Stapff in Santa Cruz; Writing by Helen Popper and Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Kieran Murray)
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