Evo says NO AUTONOMY for Santa Cruz! Evo said.
¡Se armó la piñasera en Bolivia y todo el mundo mascando hojitas de coca! A great piñasera is expected to take place in Bolivia and everybody is chewing coca leafs! ¡Hugo Chavez puede intervenir con su ejército Bolivariano y hasta Fidel puede invadir! Hugo Chavez could launch his Bolivarian Army and even Fidel could invade! ¡No se pierda este episodio de Pasión en Bolivia! Don’t miss this episode of Passion in Bolivia!
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia – Bolivia’s largest and richest state voted amid scattered violence Sunday to seek greater autonomy from the government of leftist President Evo Morales, who dismissed the referendum as a failure.
The eastern lowland state of Santa Cruz, center of Bolivia’s conservative opposition, had called the vote in hopes of separating the state’s freewheeling capitalism and mixed-blood heritage from Morales’ push for a communal state ruled by Indian values.
In the face of local exit polls showing 85 percent of voters favoring the measure, Morales claimed that as many as half the ballots were invalid, quoting media reports.
“The referendum failed completely,” he said in a nationally televised address.
But he ended his remarks with an invitation for more talks with autonomy leaders.
“Let’s work together tomorrow for a true autonomy,” he added. “For the people, and not just certain groups — an autonomy that permits the people to decide their destiny.”
Santa Cruz leaders want to keep a bigger slice of the state’s key natural gas revenues and to shelter vast soy plantations and cattle ranches from Morales’ plan to redistribute land to the poor.
Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, argues that he needs a strong central government to spread Santa Cruz’s wealth to the rest of Bolivia, South America’s poorest country.
