Bolivia's Morales wins referendum on new constitution

Bolivia's left-wing indigenous president Evo Morales won congressional approval on Tuesday for a referendum on a new, socialist constitution, but only after making key concessions to foes. The former coca farmer and trade union leader, who had stood vigil outside the congress building in La Paz overnight with more than 50,000 rural supporters, signed the plebiscite into law within an hour of it being passed. The new referendum, to be held on January 25 next year, "will guarantee irreversible change and the death of neo-liberalism," he said, triumphant tears in his eyes. If passed, the revised constitution will limit the size of big private land holdings and redistribute national revenues from important gas fields that form the main wealth of the country, the poorest in South America. It would also allow a president to run for two consecutive five-year terms, scrapping the current single-term limit. Morales has been determinedly pushing measures to give more power and rights to the long-oppressed indigenous majority, which account for 60 percent of Bolivia's population of 10 million. His "process of change," which has already included nationalizations of energy and telecommunications companies, mirrors the "revolution" of Morales's main ally and big financial backer, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But the Bolivian president, who came to power in 2006, has raised the fury of the established economic elite of mostly European descent that runs the more prosperous eastern lowlands. Violence has dogged his near two-year rule, most recently last month, when clashes between pro- and anti-government demonstrators left 19 people dead, government buildings ransacked, and led Morales to declare martial law in a northern state. The government said at the time it was concerned civil war was about to break out, and neighboring Brazil and Argentina feared their gas supplies from Bolivia could be cut off. Rebel governors in five of Bolivia's nine states are vociferous in their demands for autonomy and have whipped up protests that have made their territories no-go zones for Morales, who deployed soldiers to protect government offices there. Morales, in a bid to consolidate his hold on power and his reforms, originally called the referendum by decree for December this year. He also called early presidential and legislative elections for June 2009. But the constitutional court annulled his decree, saying only congress could authorize the plebiscite. That forced Morales to turn to lawmakers, which he did with characteristic willfulness by organizing a march to La Paz by thousands of his supporters. Some of his followers were miners brandishing sticks of dynamite who threatened to blow up the congress building if the referendum was not passed. To clinch the opposition's support, though, Morales had to make concessions, agreeing to push the early elections back to December 2009. More importantly, he promised that his re-election bid on that date would be his last -- allaying opposition fears that he would seek to run again in 2014 under the new basic law. Amendments to the draft constitution also recognize autonomy for states, as well as for municipalities and indigenous communities. The crowd surrounding Morales vowed to make sure the January referendum would be passed. "For Bolivia, for my children, we promise to Evo that we will approve the new constitution with 100 percent of the votes," said a woman from the same Aymara Indian ethnicity as the president. "Today, the governmental palace is our home," said a miner, Pedro Montes.