MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian government will be “brutally tough” with conspirators

The Bolivian government promised to be “brutally tough” with those who conspire against warned Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera on the weekend in a speech to the ruling Movement Toward Socialism, MAS party.

"When the alarm sounds and it's necessary to act with a strong hand, we will be brutally tough against conspirators" he said adding that "some right wing sectors, reactionaries who were decisively defeated last December 18 want to conspire".

Last December Evo Morales became Bolivia's first indigenous president with a landslide 53.7% in the first round.

However in his speech to the meeting held in Cochabamba, Garcia Linera did not reveal names of politicians, parties or political forces that he claimed "were conspiring".

"To those people, we tell them clearly that we're not going to allow their conspiracies. This government supports dialogue, consensus, bridge building, openness ... but beware, we're not weak" he emphasized.

Last January, before Morales took office, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused the United States of being involved in attempts to impede the Bolivian populist administration from taking office.

A few weeks later, Morales himself accused the multinational petroleum firms operating in Bolivia of planning to destabilize his government, citing army intelligence reports.

The U.S. Embassy in La Paz and the oil companies denied the accusations.

The warning made Saturday by Garcia Linera came during a meeting of MAS activists to analyze the way in which the party would participate in elections for the 225 Constitutional Assembly delegates. The July 2 vote for the assembly will be simultaneous with a referendum on regional autonomy.

Meanwhile, a survey taken in the country's three main cities, La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, published Sunday in the daily El Deber shows that 48.6% of interviews described President Morales' performance as "good" and 25.8% disapprove.