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BOLIVIA: Two More Steps Towards Provincial Autonomy

Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, Jun 2 2008 (IPS) - Bolivia’s leftist government responded cautiously to the approval of two new regional autonomy statutes, this time in the northern provinces of Beni and Pando, while the rightwing opposition celebrated their victory.

Exit polls show voters in Sunday’s referendums overwhelmingly approved the autonomy statutes, with are aimed at strengthening the decision-making powers of provincial governments and creating provincial legislatures and police forces.

Four private TV stations provided pro-autonomy coverage on Sunday, while the public TV channel and media outlets linked to the Catholic Church focused on the resistance to the autonomy movement, in a war of messages that left little room for independent analysis.

According to the Prisa business group, which owns the ATB TV channel and the La Razón newspaper, the autonomy referendums were approved by 80 percent of voters in Beni and nearly 82 percent in Pando.

Prisa also reported an abstention rate of 34.5 percent in Beni and 46.5 percent in Pando.

In Pando, a province of just 72,000 to the north of La Paz, bordering Brazil and Peru, rightwing Governor Leopoldo Fernández proclaimed victory and lashed out at President Evo Morales for urging his supporters to boycott the vote.

In Cobija, the capital of Pando, Fernández said his province was tired of being the “caboose” in the central administration’s decision-making.

While autonomy supporters danced in the streets and local authorities in the two opposition-controlled provinces made euphoric declarations, the tightly closed doors of the presidential palace in La Paz and the cold winter temperatures of the highlands reflected the government’s mood.

Unlike on May 4, when voters in the eastern province of Santa Cruz approved a similar statute, Morales broadcast no message to the nation this time to underline the low turnout.

When the voting in Beni and Pando came to an end, the president called an emergency cabinet meeting, whose agenda was not mentioned by government spokespersons.

Only Interior Minister Alfredo Rada gave a short press conference to mention the resistance mounted by peasant and social organisations that, in isolated incidents, burned ballot boxes and blocked the voting in rural communities in Beni and Pando.

However, the violent incidents were on a much smaller scale than what was seen on May 4 in Santa Cruz.

“This illegal and unconstitutional attempt to impose separatist statutes has been staunchly rejected by people in Pando,” said Rada, referring to the mobilisation against the referendum staged by residents of Filadelfia, a town located 50 km south of Cobija.

The most violent incident in Trinidad, the capital of Beni, occurred when Morales supporters protested a visit by governors Rubén Costas of Santa Cruz and Mario Cossío of Tarija.

Pro-government demonstrators clashed with violent young members of the rightwing Santa Cruz Youth Union, who attacked the offices of the Beni peasant farmer association and set a motorcycle on fire. One person was injured in the incident.

The president of the pro-business Pando Civic Committee, Ana Melena, did not rule out the possibility of negotiations between the opposition’s civic committees and the government to bring the autonomy statutes and the new constitution promoted by Morales into line with each other.

But she said that such a move should await the results of a fourth autonomy referendum, to be held Jun. 22 in the southeastern province of Tarija.

Beni Governor Ernesto Suárez urged the international community to respect the decision “of 80 percent of voters” to live in an autonomous province, while denying that the opposition had any interest in dividing Bolivia.

Despite Beni’s extensive plains suitable for livestock raising and vast forests rich in wood and wild fruits like chestnuts, 70 percent of the population lives in poverty.

Thirteen different indigenous groups live in the province’s forested areas, where they are caught up in land conflicts with large landholders who own huge extensions of rural property.

Under the draft constitution, which is pending approval by voters, unproductive land would be subject to expropriation, with compensation, in order to provide plots of land to landless peasants. Voters will also be called on to decide whether to set the size limit for landed estates at 5,000 or 10,000 hectares.

According to the government, the turnout for Sunday’s autonomy votes in Beni and Pando was similar to the low rate seen in Santa Cruz – an argument used by the Morales administration and its supporters to show that their call to boycott the referendums worked.

The government’s support base is made up of indigenous, peasant and labour groups, largely based in the western highlands. The opposition-controlled provinces are in the much wealthier eastern lowlands, which account for most of the country’s natural gas production, industry, agribusiness and gross domestic product.

Analysts say that underlying the autonomy statutes is the question of control and use of natural resources like natural gas, farmland, iron ore, water and forests.

Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, was elected in late 2005 with nearly 54 percent of the vote, on a platform promising equality for the country’s historically marginalised and discriminated impoverished indigenous majority.

But South America’s poorest country is becoming increasingly polarised between the west and the east.

The Beni and Pando autonomy statutes state that the governors and the future provincial legislatures will have the authority to administer the province’s financial resources and public works. They also open up the possibility of obtaining foreign financial aid, which only the central government currently has the power to do.

Furthermore, they give the provincial governments the authority to create and levy taxes, and to pass laws on the control and administration of natural resources and land.

After the Jun. 22 autonomy referendum in Tarija, the following electoral battle will be the Aug. 10 recall referendum for Morales, Vice President Álvaro García and the country’s nine governors, each of whom will have to take as many or more votes as they won when they were elected, in order to stay in office.