Bolivian opposition plans provincial breakaway

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia's leftist government threatened Wednesday to use force if four opposition provinces go ahead with plans to declare autonomy this weekend in a deepening conflict over constitutional reform.

As President Evo Morales prepared to celebrate the new constitution at a rally Saturday, provincial governors in Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando named delegates who will vote the same day to sever ties with the central government.

The assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution passed nearly all the reforms proposed by Morales last weekend, angering opposition leaders who had boycotted the session. They called the new constitution an illegal power grab.

The assembly moved deliberations to the city of Oruro after protests last month in which three people were killed in Sucre, where delegates had been meeting despite a months-long stalemate.

"Our first choice is dialogue but if this fails, the forces of the law will act," Interior Minister Alfredo Rada told reporters outside the government palace.

Rada's deputy, Ruben Gamarra, was more forceful.

"We will not allow any province, municipality or civic leader to attack our homeland's unity, that is clear. And it's the constitutional duty of all Bolivians to combat such acts of sedition and separatism," Gamarra said in a televised news conference.

EXTRA POLICE

The government sent extra police to the wealthy, eastern province of Santa Cruz, where opposition to Morales is strongest. But the presidential spokesman said their main mission was to protect public institutions.

Beni's governor, Ernesto Suarez, told local radio delegates will meet in the four rebel provinces Saturday to approve statutes declaring autonomy. Local media said the governors could then take control of offices such as the tax and agrarian reform bureaus which activists have occupied.

The newly passed constitution grants more autonomy to regions and to the country's Indian majority, but these provinces plan to design their own mechanism for independence.

Morales became Bolivia's first leader of indigenous descent in January 2006, ending the political dominance of a mainly white economic elite. But his presidency has been marked by volatile relations with the country's wealthier sectors.

Some civic leaders in Santa Cruz province have been on a hunger strike for over a week to demand greater autonomy.

Santa Cruz covers one-third of Bolivia's territory and is home to nearly all the unproductive and supposedly illegal estates eyed by the Morales government for redistribution among peasant farmers in South America's poorest country.

The newly reformed constitution cannot go into effect until a nationwide referendum is held on one pending article and the full text is subject to another assembly vote and a final popular referendum. (Writing by Hilary Burke; editing by Helen Popper and Todd Eastham)