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Caribbean-Latin America

Bolivia's richest region votes on autonomy drive

2008-05-05

Make way for the Republic of Santa Cruz ...

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia's richest region of Santa Cruz voted on Sunday on a plan for greater autonomy from the central government in a referendum seen as a defiant rejection of President Evo Morales' leftist reforms.

Voting was mainly calm, although clashes broke out in several poorer areas of the tropical region soon after the polls opened as backers of Morales, a former coca farmer, ransacked polling stations and burned ballots in protest. "This is a struggle for liberty. Liberation struggles are never easy," Percy Fernandez, mayor of the region's main city, told reporters.

Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president and a close ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, has branded the referendum illegal and his supporters have vowed to boycott it, meaning a "yes" vote is expected to win.

Posted by:Steve White

#5 it was a squeaker: 85%-15%. Evo should ask for a recount

Posted by: Frank G 2008-05-05 20:38

#4 When one side boycotts the election it almost always means they know they will lose. The press never really adds that fact, instead they make it out like it's just not fair that the election continues despite the protest non-vote.

Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-05-05 16:04

#3 Sounds like somebody's cookin' up some old fashioned South American-style Civil War, don't it?

Posted by: mojo 2008-05-05 13:49

#2 They seek him here, they seek him there,
Those Moralistas seek him everywhere ...

Posted by: lotp 2008-05-05 09:10

#1 Percy Fernandez? The Scarlet Pimpernel of Bolivia.

Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-05-05 07:00

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