MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Protesters paralyze Bolivian highways, airport

Protesters stormed a small airport Friday and blocked major highways across eastern Bolivia in a standoff over central government reforms designed to empower Bolivia's indigenous majority.

President Evo Morales' attempts to change the constitution, redirect natural gas revenues to the poor and redistribute fallow land are meeting with staunch opposition from the country's energy-rich eastern provinces. An airport was closed in Cobija, on Bolivia's northeastern border with Brazil, after opposition-allied protesters stormed the runways and seized a military aircraft, Army Col. Col. Velasco said. Hundreds of vehicles blocked a highway connecting Bolivia's administrative capital of La Paz with the prosperous eastern lowlands city of Santa Cruz. In the southeastern Chaco region, Bolivian radio broadcaster Erbol reported fuel and food shortages in some communities cut off by protests. Highway blockades were ordered on Wednesday by the governors of five states that oppose holding a national referendum on a constitution written by allies of the president. The opposition provinces are seeking greater autonomy from Morales' leftist government. Critics contend that Morales' proposed constitution does not represent all Bolivians and the object to a section that allows presidential reelection. Morales is seeking congressional approval for a Dec. 7 referendum on the constitution after electoral authorities blocked a presidential decree. (AP)