MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Outside support for beleaguered Bolivian president Evo Morales

Leaders from four Latin American countries rejected Wednesday a controversial autonomy bid by a region of Bolivia, which was described by |President Evo Morales as “illegal” and intended to destabilize the country.

The leaders of Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and the Cuban vice-president made the statement following an emergency meeting in Venezuela. Bolivian opposition members have announced they will hold a referendum on May 4 to demand autonomy for the oil and farm reach eastern province of Santa Cruz but the four leaders anticipated they will not recognise such an autonomous entity. The Caracas meeting had brought together some of Mr Morales's closest allies: the presidents of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, as well as Cuba's Vice-President, Carlos Lage. Mr Chavez had called the emergency meeting, declaring that Bolivia was "on the point of exploding". Four of Bolivia's nine provinces, which are less indigenous and concentrate the country's oil and gas reserves, are struggling for greater autonomy disenchanted with President Morales policies to help the poor indigenous majority of Bolivia. Morales claims they want to retain their privileges going back to colonial times and can't accept an indigenous Bolivian as president of the country. "They can't accept that a campesino, an Indian, can be president of Bolivia" he told the BBC's Spanish-language news website, BBC Mundo. "And if we look at history, we see that there have always been demands for federalism when the rich minority has lost control of central government, but then when they get it back again, they forget all about autonomy." Mr Morales said the autonomy demands were creating division, but he did not expect them to lead to violence, adding he had faith in the "conscience of the Bolivian people". Mr Morales said a proposed new constitution deals with the issue and would support a kind of autonomy. But "first comes the new constitution. And through the new constitution the government will guarantee autonomy," he said. "But it will be autonomy for the people, not autonomy for the rich elite in Santa Cruz." Bolivia was due to hold a referendum next month on the draft constitution - which grants more rights to the indigenous majority - but it has been postponed by the National Electoral Court, which ruled that there was not enough time to prepare for the vote. In the sidelines of the meeting to support Bolivia, the four leaders meeting in Caracas launched a 100-million US dollar food security fund aimed at boosting the supply of staples such as corn, rice and beans and offsetting sharp increases in global grain prices. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez launched the deal Wednesday in Caracas, along with Bolivia's Evo Morales and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage also was present. As the agreement was signed, President Chavez blamed capitalism for soaring world food prices. He also said production of some farm products will be increased in response to the situation facing many nations.