MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A divided Bolivia seems prepared to clash on Saturday

Arms up to vote the new Constitution dividing the country's public opinion

Bolivia put its armed forces on alert Thursday ahead of a threatened move towards autonomy by half the country's provinces, Defence Minister Walker San Miguel said, according to the daily La Prensa.

The soldiers have been ordered to be ready to protect public and private property although police retain responsibility for ensuring security, La Prensa cited San Miguel as saying. President Evo Morales' left leaning government fears demonstrators may try to take over public offices in Santa Cruz, the country's economic capital and a bastion of opposition. Four of Bolivia's nine provinces -- Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando -- have announced they will declare autonomy on Saturday. They object to Morales' moves to overhaul the constitution to boost presidential powers, increase the rights of the indigenous majority and redistribute wealth from their low-lying richer areas to the poorer heights of the Andes. Precisely on Saturday President Morales was planning to celebrate the new constitution at a rally in La Paz. La Prensa said 400 extra police have been sent to Santa Cruz, a city with a population of 1.5 million. "However we have not mobilized a military detachment in the city of Santa Cruz" San Miguel said. "We are remaining very attentive and concerned by what is happening in the country". The minister dismissed any suggestion that Santa Cruz would be put under "siege" by the government forces, and accused its leaders of being "paranoid". Bolivia's richer regions already declared a form of moderate autonomy a year ago, though relations with the federal government remained unchanged. Beni's governor, Ernesto Suárez, told local radio delegates will meet in the four rebel provinces on Saturday to approve statutes declaring autonomy. Local media said the governors could then take control of offices such as the tax and agrarian reform bureaus which activists have occupied. But from La Paz also came threats. "We will not allow any province, municipality or civic leader to attack our homeland's unity that is clear. And it's the constitutional duty of all Bolivians to combat such acts of sedition and separatism," said Ruben Gamarra a leading figure from the ruling coalition in a televised news conference. The assembly rewriting Bolivia's Constitution passed nearly all the reforms proposed by Morales last weekend, angering opposition leaders who had boycotted the session. They called the new constitution an illegal power grabs. The assembly moved deliberations to the city of Oruro after protests last month in which several people were killed in Sucre, where delegates had been meeting despite a months-long stalemate.