ORURO, Bolivia - Defying an opposition boycott,
Bolivia's constitutional assembly approved a new charter yesterday that would empower the poor South American nation's indigenous majority and let President Evo Morales run for re-election indefinitely.
The new constitution must now be approved by Bolivians in a national referendum. No date has been set for the vote, and it is not expected to be held until September. Opposition leaders vowed to launch protests and legal challenges against the new document, which they say does not represent all Bolivians.
"This is an authoritarian project that only seeks to perpetuate Morales in power," said Reynaldo Bayard, president of the Civic Committee of Tarija, a state where most leaders oppose Morales.
But supporters say the charter is needed to give Bolivia's indigenous peoples - some 62 percent of the population - greater autonomy and control over their traditional lands, redressing what Morales calls centuries of discrimination by a corrupt political class dominated by a European-descended elite.
The constitution's approval, 16 months after the popularly elected assembly first convened, was celebrated with fireworks and music by supporters in this pro-Morales stronghold high in the Andes.
Morales called the approval a source of "great happiness for the indigenous and popular movement" that "consecrates a peaceful transition." Opposition to the new charter is stiff in the country's low-lying and more-prosperous eastern states. Bolivia has been wracked by violent protests against the new constitution in recent weeks, with three people killed in rioting and various hunger strikes launched.
Meanwhile, Morales yesterday joined his counterpart from Ecuador, President Rafael Correa, to call for the creation of a single South American currency as a step toward lessening dependence on international financial institutions and the United States. Correa and Morales spoke in Buenos Aires after helping inaugurate the Bank of the South, a development bank pushed for by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.