Thousands of residents of Santa Cruz, Bolivia's wealthiest and most populous city, thronged the streets to celebrate the result of a vote to become autonomous. The autonomy bid is a protest against President Evo Morales' socialist policies.
President Evo Morales insists that the vote is "illegal and unconstitutional", and described it as a "complete failure", saying that the abstention rate combined with 'no' votes, came to 50 per cent. He told the province's governor, Ruben Costas, that he would ignore the result. An official partial count of votes earlier today revealed that Santa Cruz voters were 82 per cent in favour of autonomy.
Santa Cruz has been calling for autonomy in order to have greater control over how to spend local taxes, and to fight Morales' attempts to redistribute unused land to poorer indigenous farmers.
Morales also wants to give them a share in natural gas revenues from the Santa Cruz region's natural gas fields which are vital to the Bolivian economy.
Autonomy for Santa Cruz would weaken the president, giving the region a say in administering revenues from the precious natural resources, currently governed from la Paz. It would also allow for separate police forces and legislatures in any autonomous regions. Three other opposition-run provinces in Bolivia's eastern lowlands are due to hold their own autonomy referendums next month.
The president of South America's poorest country has long been on a drive to redistribute the wealth of the European descendant population living in the east of the country, to benefit the poorer indigenous majority, to which he belongs. The autonomy movement is also concerned that the national assembly is being dominated by the president's Movement Towards Socialism party.
On the regional, Americas, front, Bolivia has become an ideological point of contention between US President George W. Bush and Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, whose politics are similar to that of Morales. The Bolivian president has already accused the US ambassador in La Paz of plotting to oust him.
