Talks aimed at settling a long-running conflict in Bolivia between President Evo Morales and rebel governors that blew up into deadly unrest last week were under way yesterday, as soldiers battled to restore order.
The meeting between Vice President Alvaro Garcia and Tarija state Governor Mario Cossio, who was also representing the four other governors in the opposition coalition, started late on Sunday.
A summit between South American presidents concerned over the strife in Bolivia was also to be held in Chile yesterday.
Both sides in Bolivia waved an olive branch after six days of street violence that left at least 18 people dead and 100 wounded in the northern state of Pando.
Troops sent to that state, which was put under martial law by Morales on Friday, were facing off with armed anti-government protesters in the main city of Cobija.
They were also hunting the state governor, Leopoldo Fernandez, to arrest him for rejecting the martial law order, and for allegedly having a hand in the deaths of 16 of those killed. The government said the dead, mostly peasants who supported Morales, had been gunned down in an ambush.
Opposition leaders in the state of Santa Cruz said on Sunday they had ordered an end to roadblocks that had been set up in protest against the government, and which had caused a penury of fuel in the state, as a gesture of “goodwill for dialogue.”
Garcia responded by saying the government was “amply predisposed” to negotiate.
The governors have rejected socialist reforms Morales is seeking to impose, including rewriting the Constitution to break up big land holdings to give parcels to poor Bolivian Indians and to redistribute the country’s revenues from lucrative gas fields.
The conflict has pitted the indigenous majority, which includes Morales, against the white or mixed population inhabiting the eastern lowlands.
Morales has been defiant, vowing as recently as Saturday to “emerge victorious” with his reforms or die trying. He also accused the rebel governors of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija and Chuquisaca of “plotting a fascist, racist coup” against him.
Garcia said Morales would not take part in the negotiations, but would step in at the end to sign any resulting deal.
The internal problems of Bolivia took place against a parallel diplomatic row with the US.
On Sunday, the US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, left the country under an expulsion order by Morales, who had accused him of supporting the opposition and encouraging a division of the country.
Before flying out, he told reporters in La Paz that Bolivia could expect “serious consequences” in return, beyond the expulsion of the Bolivian ambassador, which had already been announced.
Morales, Goldberg said, had “not correctly evaluated” the effects of his order, and he highlighted the US-led fight against cocaine production in Bolivia, which receives US$100 million a year in US aid.
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