Fatal violence puts Bolivia in wide disarray

LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales is facing the most acute crisis of his presidency as deaths from violence in rebellious northern Bolivia increased to almost 30 over the weekend. Supporters of Morales said Sunday that the death toll could rise with dozens of people caught up in the violence and still unaccounted for.

All the deaths occurred in Pando province, where Morales declared martial law Friday, dispatching troops and accusing government foes of killing his supporters.

On Sunday, violence escalated as protesters set fire to a town hall and blocked highways in opposition-controlled provinces, provoking gasoline and food shortages.

The governor of natural gas-rich Tarija, representing the four eastern provinces in rebellion, said before entering talks in the capital Sunday with Vice President Alvaro Garcia that half the country was paralyzed by 35 highway blockades.

"Also paralyzed are borders with Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay," said Gov. Mario Cossio, who expressed hope of laying the groundwork for a truce.

Each side has accused the other of arming illegal paramilitary groups.

"Better that we take action now, before we have 100 or 1,000 dead," Cossio said.

The government and the opposition called Sunday for an independent investigation into Thursday's killings in Pando, a sparsely populated province along the Amazonian frontiers with Brazil and Peru.

Rifts have been widening for two years, with intermittent outbursts of violence, but so far Bolivia has avoided falling into full-fledged civil conflict. However, many analysts call the present crisis the nation's most perilous point in decades.

South America's leaders were headed to Chile for an emergency summit today aimed at trying to prevent Bolivia from splintering apart. All the presidents of the continent's major nations except Alan Garcia of Peru confirmed their attendance, including Morales.

Government troops continued to arrive in Pando and patrol the streets of its capital, Cobija. Morales spokesman Ivan Canelas said "an armed group" set fire early Sunday to the town hall in nearby Filadelfia.

The government has accused the governor of Pando, Leopoldo Fernandez, and his allies of importing sicarios, or hired killers, from Peru and Brazil to shoot down defenseless peasants allied with the president. Fernandez, who went into hiding to avoid arrest, has denied provoking the violence and blamed the central government for the clash.

On Sunday, Juan Ramon Quintana, a top aide to Morales, told a local radio station that Fernandez had been arrested.

The violence points to renewed tension over Morales' attempts to redistribute petroleum royalties and to overhaul the constitution to speed land reform and create a separate legal system for Bolivia's indigenous majority. Most of Bolivia's natural gas and food is produced in the eastern lowlands, and those departmental governments have chafed at the president's proposals.

The conservative leadership of five of Bolivia's nine provinces is aligned against Morales and insists that he cancel a Jan. 25, 2009, referendum on a new constitution that would help him centralize power and run for a second consecutive term.

Critics call Morales a communist tyrant who seeks dictatorial powers.

Morales, who won 67 percent of the vote in a recall election last month, says his policies have benefited the needy masses in South America's poorest nation.

Compiled from The New York Times, The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times