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SANTIAGO: An emergency summit of South American presidents got underway Monday in the Chilean capital to consider deadly unrest in Bolivia that President Evo Morales called an attempted "coup" against him.
The gathering, including Morales, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and the leaders of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay, started late and was expected to continue into the night.
Morales accused rebel governors and opposition groups in his country's east of violating human rights as they defied his rule.
The groups, he said on arriving in Santiago, had embarked on "ransackings, attempted robbery, terrorist acts and actions aimed at cutting gas pipelines."
Morales said in the summit he would "explain to the presidents of South America the civic coup d'etat by governors in some Bolivian states in recent days."
Violence between pro- and anti-government protesters and army troops last week left at least 18 people dead and 100 wounded in the northern states of Pando.
Another 50 people were unaccounted for and Bolivian farm unions said the final death toll could be over 30.
Five rebel governors are pushing for autonomy after rejecting Morales's attempts to impose socialist reforms and a rewritten constitution designed to benefit the downtrodden indigenous majority to which he belongs.
Morales's harsh words for them ran counter to progress that was said to have been made in overnight talks between a representative of his foes, Tarija governor Mario Cossio and Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera.
Cossio had said "we are on the right path" and "80 per cent towards the basis of an agreement."
Anti-government protesters in the states of Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni, Tarija and Chuquisaca last week seized control of government offices and airports and clashed with indigenous peasants supporting Morales.
The Bolivian president decreed martial law in Pando following the deaths there of at least 16 people, most of them rural workers. A soldier and a civilian were also killed in two days of fighting after 100 troops arrived by plane Friday to seize back the main city of Cobija and its airport.
The soldiers were hunting for state governor Leopoldo Fernandez, whom they sought to arrest for rejecting the martial law order. Ten other people were already arrested, allegedly for weapons possession, the armed forces said.
The government also has accused Fernandez of having a hand in the deaths, alleging the workers were gunned down in an ambush.
Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley told reporters that the Union of South American Nations and the Organization of American States, were sending a delegation to Bolivia "to work out a calendar for an end to the violence and to ensure permanent dialogue" between the antagonists.
The summit was being held against a backdrop of worsening diplomatic relations between the United States and several of the Latin American leaders attending the gathering, following Morales's decision to expel the US ambassador in La Paz for allegedly aiding the Bolivian opposition.
In solidarity with Bolivia, Venezuela has kicked out the US ambassador in Caracas.
Meanwhile, in Central America, Honduras is refusing to accept the credentials of a new US envoy and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has spurned an invitation to meet US President George W. Bush at an upcoming UN General Assembly in New York.
Washington has retaliated by expelling the Bolivian and Venezuelan ambassadors.
- AFP/yb
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