Another three provinces are expected to follow suit over the coming weeks in an open but so far peaceful rebellion which could cripple the federal government, a leading member of South America’s so-called pink tide.
Santa Cruz, the richest province in the continent’s poorest country, voted overwhelmingly to distance itself from the capital, La Paz, in a referendum on Monday. The indigenous majority based in the western highlands still supports the government.

Complete results were not expected for several more days, but early official tallies from Santa Cruz, an opposition stronghold, said more than 84 per cent had voted for autonomy, underlining the polarisation. Turnout was put at 64 per cent.

“Today we begin in Santa Cruz a new republic, a new state,” the prefect, Rubén Costas, told a victory rally.”
The province stopped short of secession, but demanded the right to raise taxes, run a police force, protect land rights and control some revenues from its gas fields.

The vote also expressed hostility to the government’s championing of indigenous communities which scrabble for survival in the highlands, a very different Bolivia to Santa Cruz and the relatively prosperous eastern lowlands.
Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, used to be a Ilama herder, coca farmer and trade union leader.
“My family is voting for autonomy because the Indians want to dominate us,” said Olga Tordolla, a woman in a largely indigenous quarter of Santa Cruz city known as Plan Tres Mil. “They are racist, they hate white people.”
The federal government has  rejected the referendum as an “illegal survey” and an attempt by greedy, paler-skinned Bolivians to continue the social and economic exclusion of indigenous people which dates back to the Spanish conquest.

In a televised address Morales said, “The referendum failed completel.” The president thanked indigenous communities for sporadic Monday’s protests, some of which turned violent, reportedly leaving one dead and 25 injured.