BOLIVIA:
Alleged Plot Renews Fears

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - The discovery of an alleged plot to seize Bolivia's Congress has prompted fears of renewed bloodshed three months after deadly protests forced out a president and left dozens dead in a country key to America's fight against drugs.

The accusations of a plot, coupled with rumors about the emergence of small, armed movements in the coca-growing Chapare region, come at a time of fragile stability in Bolivia.

Rumblings of discontent with President Carlos Mesa are being heard from labor and indigenous leaders who pushed out his predecessor for failing to address their demands.

Nonetheless, Mesa still has considerable mainstream support three months after he assumed the presidency in October, when streets clashes left 56 people dead in a popular revolt against former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

``He's bought himself some time with astute politics,'' said the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, David Greenlee. ``But it's gonna be tough.''

The Bolivian polling company Apoyo said Saturday that Mesa had a 77 percent approval rating, despite the opposition.

U.S.-backed eradication of Bolivia's coca leaf, the base ingredient of cocaine, depends on a moderate government like Mesa's. Many of the president's would-be challengers decry meddling by the United States and say the coca crackdown has unfairly deprived thousands of poor farmers of their livelihoods.

A leftist leader who spoke on condition of anonymity said small groups of coca farmers have begun taking up arms to protect their plantations in the central Chapare, once one of the world's largest coca-growing regions.

In December, a homemade mortar was fired at a military vehicle in the Chapare, killing a soldier and injuring several others. After launching an investigation, authorities arrested 35 coca farmers. Half a dozen police and soldiers sent to eradicate coca in the region have also died from the explosion of crude land mines in the last year and a half.

``When you have areas of both instability and criminality, like in the Chapare, there's an environment for other things as well,'' Greenlee said. ``We've been concerned about what happens in these kinds of incubators.''

There are also unconfirmed reports that armed movements are forming in El Alto, the hotbed of last year's protests, and in surrounding towns in the high plains of western Bolivia.

Such violent groups in El Alto, with support from militants in La Paz, were allegedly at the heart of what a top Bolivian lawmaker described as a violent plot by urban militants to storm Congress.

Hormando Vaca Diez, the president of Congress, said the plan called for armed men to swoop down Jan. 20 from mountains surrounding La Paz, occupy the strategic Plaza Murillo and then take over the Legislative Palace while lawmakers were inside.

Vaca Diez said he was informed of the plot Jan. 19, and that authorities were able to break it up, though no arrests were announced. He went public with the discovery last week, prompting lawmakers to quickly approve a resolution that gives Vaca Diez the power to transfer Congress to other cities in times of emergency.

Evo Morales, a coca leader and congressman, contradicted Vaca Diez's version of events, saying Sanchez de Lozada, the former president who fled to the United States last October, was behind the plot.

Vaca Diez declined to name who was behind the plan, but said two top union leaders, Jaime Solares and Roberto de la Cruz, had been warning they were going to shut Congress around the same time.

De la Cruz, who is from El Alto, said it was no secret he'd like to see Congress disappear, but denied any involvement.

``The parliamentarians, who we call 'the pigs of Congress,' don't want to change their attitude to address the people's demands,'' said De la Cruz. ``We will eventually close them down.''

De la Cruz, a leader of Bolivia's urban poor, was jailed for allegedly inciting his followers to burn down El Alto's city hall last February, then freed two months afterward for lack of evidence. He led October's protests in El Alto.

The resolution to move Congress during social turmoil prompted criticism by city officials in La Paz and El Alto, who said such a step would only further ``divide'' Bolivians.

La Paz has been the political capital of Bolivia since 1899, moved from the colonial city of Sucre after a civil war. But many still lament that move.

Meanwhile, Vaca Diez insisted the resolution is only preventive and he hopes never to have to use it.

But observers say the measure will likely be put to use, noting Congress must make controversial decisions even as labor and indigenous leaders have threatened to return to the streets if they disagree with lawmakers.

Congress must decide in coming months whether to prosecute Sanchez de Lozada and other former politicians for the protest deaths.

Lawmakers also must consider two contentious tax bills presented by Mesa - a 1.5-percent income tax on Bolivians with net worth above $50,000 and a levy on banking transactions.

Turmoil is also possible after votes are in on a pending referendum to decide whether to export Bolivia's natural gas - the issue that toppled Sanchez de Lozada.

``Up until now, we've been fighting with sticks and stones,'' said Felipe Quispe, an Aymara Indian leader who wants Bolivia to nationalize its gas resources. ``But bit by bit, this could become an armed revolution.''