Bolivia army patrols town under martial law

Bolivian troops patrolled a restive city in the impoverished nation’’s north
before dawn on Sunday, the mayor said, as the death toll rose to 30 from days of
clashes between government and opposition supporters.

Troops fanned through the streets of Cobija city early on Sunday after forces
grouped in the airport for two days when leftist President Evo Morales declared
martial law on Friday in Pando province, where Cobija is the capital.

“Troops left the airport and went through all the streets of Cobija. It was
early this morning,” Cobija Mayor Luis Flores told Reuters by telephone.

Flores said troops were in control of the city but a Reuters witness said the
town was deserted on Sunday morning and there was no sign of troops.

Bolivia, an unstable country at the heart of South America, has been rocked
in the past week as supporters of rightist opposition governors stepped up their
rejection of Morales” plans for deep socialist reforms.

Morales is among a new generation of leftist leaders in Latin America allied
with strongly anti-Washington President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

The government nearly doubled the death toll from deadly clashes as troops
continued to find bodies from a Thursday clash in Pando between mostly
pro-government peasant farmers and backers of Morales” rightist opponents.

“We are nearing the 30 mark,” government minister Alfredo Rada said
overnight.

The army was not immediately available for comment on the Pando situation on
Sunday morning.

Morales on Saturday accused backers of Pando’’s opposition governor, Leopoldo
Fernandez, of ordering a “massacre” and the government has vowed to arrest him.
Fernandez has rejected the charge.

A group of opposition governors was due to visit Cobija in a show of
solidarity on Sunday. A representative was then due to hold a second round of
talks with the government later in the day aimed on easing a deep political
crisis pitting them against Morales.

Morales defied them on Saturday by vowing to introduce divisive reforms just
hours after signs of a compromise had emerged from a first round of talks.

Addressing a crowd of thousands in the central city of Cochabamba in the poor
Andean nation’’s coca-growing heartland, Morales accused his opponents of
seeking to topple his government with violence and called them enemies of
Bolivia.

“They are conspiring against us with a fascist, racist coup,” Morales,
Bolivia’’s first Indian leader, said as he pledged to adopt a new pro-indigenous
constitution bitterly opposed by right-wing governors demanding autonomy.

“Their plan is to topple the Indian. They may topple the Indian but they will
never topple the Bolivian people,” he said. “Just imagine how unpatriotic they
are. They are the enemies of all Bolivians.”

The remote opposition region of Pando was the scene of the worst of a new
wave of political violence.

Protesters continued to block roads in eastern areas on Saturday, causing
fuel and food shortages in opposition-led Santa Cruz. Two groups of protesters
clashed with home-made explosives in the region on Saturday.

Officials said rioters had destroyed or set fire to about 30 public buildings
earlier in the week.

The violence forced authorities to cut exports of natural gas to Argentina
and Brazil, Bolivia’’s main source of revenue, although near-normal exports were
later resumed.

The Union of South American Nations, which includes most leaders in the
region, are due to hold an emergency presidential summit about Bolivia on Monday
in Santiago, Chile. (Reuters)

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