LA PAZ, Bolivia (AFP) — A massive strike against President Evo Morales was held in Bolivia's wealthier lowlands Tuesday, backed by rebel governors trying to wrest control of revenues from all-important gas fields there.
The 24-hour stoppage in the eastern states of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija and Chuquisaca -- effectively half the territory of South America's poorest nation -- took place mostly peacefully with only isolated incidents reported.
The leftwing national government had said it feared a degeneration into violence, and mobilized police and army units to guard public buildings.
In the city of Santa Cruz, the main bastion of opposition, pro-Morales youths attacked journalists from a commercial Bolivian television station in a poor neighborhood.
Tarija's regional capital of the same name saw strikers occupy the state customs service offices overnight.
Markets, public transport, domestic flights, private banking and local public offices in the five states were all affected by the stoppage, television images showed.
The opposition governors were trying to pressure Morales to drop a levy on regional revenues from gas output, and were demanding 166 million dollars already raised from the tax be handed over to them.
They are locked in a wider struggle with Morales over the direction of the country -- a struggle complicated by an August 10 referendum that solidly confirmed Morales's and the opposition governors' mandates.
Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, has been imposing a series of socialist reforms designed to give greater benefits to the mostly downtrodden indigenous majority.
They include railroading through nationalizations and reforms, often while sidestepping or ignoring the opposition.
In retaliation, the opposition governors -- representing an entrenched elite of European descent with vast private interests -- have embarked on procedures to declare autonomy for their states.
The crisis has riven the country along geographical, economic and ethnic lines and created concern in the Americas because of Bolivia's role in supplying natural gas to neighbors and in growing coca leaves, which are used in the production of cocaine.
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