Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Will Boliva split apart?

Here at KPC we have been following the dual saga of Evo Morales' attempts to pass a new consititution in Bolivia that re-distributes political power and several of the richer individual states making plans to hold autonomy referenda (see here for a story and other links).

The Miami Herald ran a story yesterday about how this situation is still unresolved and a cause for concern.

A major diplomatic effort is underway to ease tensions in Bolivia, where planned autonomy referendums by rich, renegade provinces have stoked fears of political strife. Dante Caputo, the head of the political unit of the Organization of American States, is to meet on Monday with the governors of five provinces that have challenged Bolivia's left-wing President Evo Morales' push to pass a draft constitution. The text gives indigenous peoples more power and the state greater control of the economy, deepening regional and ethnic rifts in the Andean country. This has produced an unprecedented international reaction, with the foreign ministers of Brazil and Argentina visiting the country in recent days and on Friday the European Union and 16 more countries offering to mediate, underscoring international concerns over the direction of the poor, landlocked nation, which sits on some of South America's largest natural-gas reserves and is a major producer of cocaine.

The state of Santa Cruz has an autonomy referendum scheduled for May 4th, two others on June 1, and a fourth on June 22.

The article ends on a cautionary note:

Economic woes are adding to the tensions. Inflation has been creeping up in Bolivia and natural-gas output has been slipping since Morales nationalized the industry in 2006. Bolivia is a major natural-gas supplier to Argentina and Brazil.

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