LA PAZ, BOLIVIA — President Evo Morales seeks a new mandate for his socialist agenda today in a nationwide referendum that reflects deep divisions in this troubled South American nation.
Morales, his vice president and eight state governors face recall votes that could throw them all out of office. Polls indicate that Morales is likely to retain his job, though several governors who oppose his policies could lose theirs.
A tense atmosphere prevails across the country. Violent anti-government demonstrations and airport blockades forced the cancellation of an energy summit with the presidents of Argentina and Venezuela. There have been threats to obstruct the vote and reports of gunfire directed at the vehicle of a Cabinet member.
"I'm sorry to say it, but now the dictatorships of the '60s and '70s are being replaced by some groups that take airports, occupy electoral offices and take shots at ministers' cars," Morales said at a rally last week.
The anti-government protests have made it difficult for Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, to travel outside his stronghold here in the capital and the surrounding western highlands. His efforts to redistribute land and income in South America's poorest nation have made him a hero to the struggling Indian masses and to left-wing activists worldwide.
However, many middle-class Bolivians who once supported Morales have defected. And hostility toward his government is fierce in the relatively prosperous, generally pro-capitalist lowlands. Four lowland states already have voted for autonomy, which Morales calls an illegal maneuver to divide the country. Opposition leaders likewise call today's referendum unlawful.
Both sides are using the disputed election to push their vision of the future for this landlocked nation of 9.2 million.
Much of Bolivia's natural gas and agricultural wealth is concentrated in the lowlands, where authorities are keen to retain tax revenue and energy royalties now destined for federal coffers. The highland Indians who form the president's base support are in the minority there.
Morales, who rose to prominence as a fierce opponent of U.S.-backed efforts to criminalize commerce in coca leaves, the source of cocaine, has repeatedly accused Washington of trying to foment a coup against him -- a charge denied by the Bush administration. U.S.-Bolivian relations are severely strained.
