Clashes in Bolivia Halt Talks Before Morales Referendum

Violent protests have shaken Bolivia and forced the leaders of Venezuela and Argentina to cancel a visit to the country in the run-up to a referendum on Evo Morales' rule.

Demonstrators hostile to the president besieged an airport and clashed with police in Tarija, in southern Bolivia, forcing authorities on Tuesday to abandon a summit between Morales and his South American allies. The clashes underlined combustible tensions on the eve of Sunday's referendum, which will ask voters whether Morales and provincial governors should stay in power.

The Andean nation's first indigenous president hopes the vote will shore up his leadership and revive a faltering effort to "refound" Bolivia as a socialist state that champions the rights of the long-neglected indigenous majority.The combative coca farmer turned president has vowed to overturn 500 years of colonialism and domination by pale-skinned elites which have left indigenous people, estimated at 60% of the population, mired in poverty. But opponents accuse Morales of autocracy and recklessness. They have blocked key policies, leaving the country polarized and politically paralyzed.Opposition activists tried to storm Tarija airport as it prepared to receive Morales' regional allies, Argentina's president, Cristina Kirchner, and the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez.

The summit was supposedly about gas and oil supplies but was in reality a display of leftwing partisanship, said local opposition leader Reynaldo Bayard. "They said they are going to sign an energy agreement, but it's a political show in support of Morales," he said.

As the crowd clashed with riot police, who used tear gas to regain control, a decision was made to cancel the meeting to avoid further inflaming the situation.

Chávez, an economic sponsor of Morales, blamed the protests on the US. "We have decided to suspend the trip to Tarija because the North American empire is attacking," he said. It was a sign of Washington's desperation on the eve of a democratic vote, he added.

Sunday's referendum will determine whether the president, the vice president and eight elected regional governors, among them leading opposition figures, will stay in office.

Morales is expected to survive. To eject him his opponents must gain more votes than he won in 2005, when he gained 53.7% in a historic landslide. If several opposition governors are ousted, the president could revive his push for a new constitution. But with the eastern lowlands expected to remain opposition bastions, the deadlock is likely to continue.

In a separate protest over pension reforms, miners in Oruro clashed with police, leaving two miners dead and more than 30 injured.