Bolivian province votes on autonomy

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Voters in Bolivia's largest state are likely to pass a sweeping autonomy referendum Sunday, dealing a blow to the country's leftist president and deepening an entrenched political conflict.

Santa Cruz state leaders are pushing the referendum in a bid to keep a bigger slice of the state's key natural gas revenues, while also protecting their soy plantations and cattle ranches from President Evo Morales' plan to redistribute land to the poor.

Morales says he needs a strong central government to spread Santa Cruz's wealth to the rest of South America's poorest country.

But both sides spoke calmly in the run up to Sunday's election despite regional divisions that have split Bolivia for years.

Morales told The Associated Press Friday that he would exercise patience and possibly address some of the autonomy issues in his proposed constitution.

Santa Cruz Gov. Ruben Costas emphasized that Sunday's referendum is but one step. Three more eastern lowland states -- Beni, Pando, and Tarija -- hold autonomy votes in June. And no one is clear what autonomy would look like.

"This process does not begin or end on May 4," Costas said at a news conference Saturday. "Nobody should be frustrated if we don't wake up on Monday totally autonomous."

The ambitious autonomy statutes up for approval Sunday would create local powers such as a state legislature and police force, which currently do not exist separate from the central government.

But Morales takes particular issue with the few clauses that bear the distinct ring of nationhood: complete control over land distribution and the right to sign international treaties, among others.

Santa Cruz leaders insist that they have no intention of seceding.

But support for some form of local rule runs high in the state's namesake capital. Pro-autonomy graffiti blankets the city's walls, and Santa Cruz's green-and-white flag flutter from cars and shop windows all over town.

Locals polls show the referendum drawing as much as 70 percent support going into election day.

Long isolated from Bolivia's high-altitude capital of La Paz, rural Santa Cruz has aspired to greater self-rule for generations.

The movement has caught fire since Morales' 2005 election as Bolivia's first indigenous president. His vision of a communal state ruled by traditional indigenous values has clashed mightily with the freewheeling global capitalism that rules the eastern lowlands.

But small pro-Morales factions in the Santa Cruz countryside burned copies of the autonomy statues in protest Saturday and set up road blocks to prevent the election from taking place in their communities.

And some say autonomy would do nothing to help the plight of average Bolivians.

"So the Santa Cruz teachers start receiving their salaries from the state instead of the national government," said Fernando Molina, editor of the news weekly Pulso. "They'll be the same teachers we have now, and the students will have the same deficiencies we have now." E-mail to a friend

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