Bolivia

Tensions on the rise in lead up to referendum

Article published on the 2008-08-07 Latest update 2008-08-07 15:42 TU

Miners confront police near Oruru, 5 August.
(Photo : Reuters)

Violent protests during a miners’ strike have left two dead in Bolivia. Elesehwere anti-government demonstrators prevented the Presidents of Argentina and Venezuela from visiting the country. All this in a final week fraught with tension before a referendum on Sunday that will determine President Evo Morales’ future.

Morales’ referendum is an attempt to reassert his authority after four state governors in the country’s gas-rich east staged successful referendums for more autonomy, in order to avoid having to share revenues with the poorer western regions.

On Tuesday, clashes between striking miners and police left two protestors dead and 32 injured near Oruru, in the centre-west of the country.

The miners were demanding higher retirement benefits – something that Morales is hesitant to do after nationalising some mining companies over the last year.

Later in the day, two of Morales' South American allies were scheduled to land in the small southern town of Tarija to show their support. But Argentine President Cristina Kirchner and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were forced to cancel the visit after 200 violent protestors began burning tires and hurling bricks at police at the airport.

The referendum’s stakes are high, laying bare economic and ethnic divisions which Morales has sworn to tackle to benefit the poor indigenous population.

Evo Morales.
(Photo : AFP)

Morales, an Aymara Indian himself, has promised to hold new elections within six months if the same percentage of voters who elected him – 53 per cent – vote now to sanction him. But on the other side of the scales, the rebel governors will lose their mandates if 50 per cent plus one vote to sanction them.

The constitutionality of the vote was called into question when four of five Constitutional Court judges resigned over the matter, and the opposition governors have sworn not to respect the result.

According to polls – which are notoriously inaccurate in Bolivia - Morales is likely to win on Sunday.