Bolivian governors opposed to president Evo Morales' leftist reforms staged a general strike today in five of the country's nine provinces, demanding a bigger share of energy revenues.
The protest was organised just nine days after Mr Morales won more than 67 per cent of votes to survive a recall referendum. The vote, however, also confirmed his main right-wing rivals in office, deepening a power struggle that has raged all year.
Shops and banks were closed and traffic was down to a trickle on the streets of Santa Cruz, the capital of the country's farming heartland. One-day strikes were also held in Beni, Pando, Tarija and Chuquisaca provinces, with local media reporting greater participation in urban areas.
The governors want Mr Morales to stop taking energy revenue previously earmarked for the provinces to pay for a national pension scheme. But Mr Morales says they can afford to help with anti-poverty programs because their coffers swelled after he hiked taxes on energy companies in 2006.
"Everyone is complying with the strike ... our regions need to recover these resources," protest leader Branko Marinkovic told reporters in Santa Cruz early today before calling Mr Morales "a dictator."
Although Mr Marinkovic said he wanted to avoid violence, young people were seen coming in and out of his office building carrying batons and baseball bats.
After a recent, failed meeting with the opposition governors, Mr Morales said they "only want money" while his foes accused him of trying to strangle them financially.
The president had to cancel rallies ahead of the recall vote in some regions due to violence, and last week anti-government protesters in Santa Cruz beat up two police officers in front of TV cameras.
The impoverished country's first indigenous president, Mr Morales draws most of his support from Aymara and Quechua Indians living in the western Andean highlands.
But his political rivals in the wealthier eastern regions, home to the county's vast natural gas reserves and rich farmland, reject his policies and fear his ultimate goal is to turn Bolivia into a Cuban-style socialist state.
Mr Morales belongs to a group of leftist leaders in Latin America that has boosted state control over natural resources, among them Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Mr Morales nationalised the energy sector, raising taxes on foreign companies, and took over mining and telecommunications ventures previously run by large multinationals.
Stiff opposition from governors and right-wing lawmakers has forced him to freeze a plan to redistribute land among the poor and implement a new constitution he says would help stamp out discrimination against the Indian majority.
Reuters