Bolivia puts crisis talks on hold
Posted: 26 September 2008 0915 hrs

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LA PAZ: President Evo Morales and autonomy-seeking opposition governors on Thursday postponed their talks aimed at defusing Bolivia's violent political crisis until Monday, officials said.

The talks were put on hold a week after they began in Cochabamba under monitorship of the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

"On Monday there'll be another meeting and a new evaluation of the work done so far," said Rural Development Minister Carlos Romero. "We need two or three more days to deal with pending issues before we can finish this job."

He said the talks have made "significant progress" so far, but gave no details.

Tarija Governor Mario Cossio, speaking on behalf of his counterparts from Beni, Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca, said the talks "have taken a step forward," but that more time was needed to overcome "real problems" over regional tax issues.

At the event was Morales and vice president Alvaro Garcia, the opposition governors, and the UN and OAS observers, as well as observers from the European Union and the Catholic Church.

"We'll meet again on Monday. We're leaving in the hope the time off will be enough to bring results," Cossio said.

Ahead of the meeting Morales accused the governors of plotting a coup, and highlighted the support he received Wednesday in New York when the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) gave Bolivia's democracy a vote of confidence.

During the talks it became known that the governors, with support from regional groups, had looked for foreign support to create a protectorate in case the central government cracked down on their autonomy.

Bolivia's political conflict detonated in street violence that killed 18 people earlier this month as Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, struggled to assert his authority over the eastern half of the country.

Rival factions agreed to avoid discussing a draft constitution, which Morales is seeking to rewrite along socialist lines, during the talks.

Romero heads a negotiating team tasked with harmonising the draft constitution with the autonomous tendencies of Bolivia's easternmost wealthy provinces.

The rebel governors are also seeking for Morales to abandon land reforms and recognise their ambitions for autonomy.

Dialogue froze between the two sides some eight months ago, and violence has once again flared in recent weeks in the divided country, the poorest in South America.

Bolivia's social and political conflict pits the impoverished indigenous majority of the Andean highlands against more ethnically mixed and relatively prosperous eastern lowlands, where natural gas reserves are located.

- AFP/yb