Ocnus.Net
Morales Supporters Clash with Opponents in Bolivia
By Reuters 5/12/06
Dec 6, 2006, 09:52
A photographer who was at the scene said several hundred supporters of the leftist leader -- some carrying sticks and traditional Aymara Indian whips -- stormed into a church in downtown La Paz and forced out six opposition activists who were on hunger strike there.
State news agency ABI said no one was hurt in the incident in San Francisco church and that police quickly calmed the situation.
The clash follows weeks of mounting tension over voting rules at the Constitutional Assembly, an elected chamber rewriting the South American country's constitution.
The rightist opposition says Morales' MAS (Movement Toward Socialism) party, which holds a majority in the assembly, wants to impose a voting system that favors it.
According to local media, the government supporters came from the nearby city of El Alto, which has a largely indigenous population and is a Morales stronghold. Morales, a former coca farmer and an Aymara Indian, is Bolivia's first indigenous president.
Lawmakers from the main opposition party Podemos said on Tuesday they were also joining the hunger strike being staged by Morales' opponents in various parts of the country.
The governors of Santa Cruz, Tarija and Pando -- three of the four opposition-controlled regions that are pressing for more autonomy from the central government -- are also on hunger strike.
"The people that robbed and violated human rights are now going on hunger strike ... it seems they don't want change," Morales said in a speech in the highland city of Oruro, 160 miles south of La Paz.
During his presidential campaign last year, Morales pledged to establish an elected assembly to write a new constitution to give the indigenous majority more political power.
Morales, elected in December 2005, has described the existing constitution as a "relic" of the Spanish colonizers.
The 255-member assembly convened in August, but is yet to approve any new legislation due to the polarization over voting rules.
MAS wants a mixed voting system: simple-majority for minor articles, and two-thirds for controversial issues such as regional autonomy or reforms to the structure of the State.
Opposition groups say those rules -- which were approved by simple majority last month -- leave Morales' opponents without much say in the future legal framework, and they are campaigning for a two-thirds voting system for all articles.
Source: Ocnus.net 2008