MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Evo's ?refounding' begins today

President Evo Morales' drive to reinvent Bolivia takes a big step today with the opening of a convention to write a new Constitution aimed at ending the centuries-old supremacy of the European-descended minority.

Morales, a leftist elected in December as Bolivia's first Indian president, envisions the nationally elected Constituent Assembly, which has up to a year to rewrite the Constitution, as nothing less than the "refounding" of the country on a new deal for the Indian majority.

Hours before Morales landed at Sucre yesterday with Cuban Vice-President Carlos Lage in a Venezuelan jet, his borrowed fleet of Venezuelan helicopters thundered back and forth over the colonial city.

The Constituent Assembly is "writing historic pages not only for the independence of the Bolivian people but all people of the Americas," Lage said. "Bolivia, with its refounding under the direction of President Morales, is setting an example for the world." Morales was scheduled to address the nation later.

The divisions of class, race, geography and culture that will frame the debate were brought into sharp relief as the 255 delegates elected last month were sworn in on Thursday night.

On one side of the narrow aisle sat the delegates from Morales' leftist party, many wearing the fluorescent-coloured knit caps of the Aymara Indians or the bowlers and white straw hats favoured by rural women. On the conservative benches, the skin tone was visibly paler, and business suits dominated.

At one point the conservatives, many from eastern provinces that want to keep more of their wealth from being consumed by socialist programmes, stood up chanting "Autonomy!" Morales' loyalists responded with "Revolution!" After pleas for order, both sides settled down and sang the national anthem.

Bolivia's current Constitution was adopted in 1967 under René Barrientos Ortuño, who rose to power in a military coup and was then elected president. Its last modification came in 1994, when President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada drove changes to the electoral process, including expanding presidential terms from four years to five.

In Sucre, Bolivia's colonial former capital where the assembly is gathering, workers painted bright new crosswalks on narrow streets, and residents had until today to spruce up the facades of their houses or be fined.