“One is headed toward the abyss,” Nenadich said during Saturday’s introduction to the XI Native Gathering of the Americas, held at the Carbondale Recreation and Community Center. “It is going full speed and has no driver.

“The other is headed toward the salvation of humanity,” he said. “It is moving more slowly, and stopping all the time. It is the train of forgiveness, of humbleness and of understanding. The driver of that train is the indigenous people.”

Most of society is on the wrong train, he said.

But with more gatherings like the one he has helped organize for the past 11 years may come greater unity of indigenous people. In time, perhaps that will lead to broader understanding, and maybe more people will change trains, he said.

Nenadich started the Centro de Estudios Indigenas de las Americas, which began convening the gatherings each year.

He related his story of how he once was very ill, and as part of his healing process in the mid-1990s said he heard a calling to help unify indigenous people up and down the American continents.

The three-day gathering, which was cut short Sunday evening due to the snowstorm, brought close to 100 people to Carbondale from as far north as Alaska and as far south as Argentina and Chile.

Among those representing “Turtle Island,” a Native reference to the lower 48 contiguous states of the United States, were several western nations, including Ute, Cherokee, Arapaho and Navajo.

Attendees took part in blessing and healing ceremonies at the Carbondale Nature Park, as well as the nearby Sustainable Settings Ranch. They also met for discussions at the community center related to economic development, exercising of sovereignty among Native American nations, cultural integrity and human dignity, and concerns related to ecosystem destruction.

A major thrust of the conference was the founding of the new International Foundation for the Advancement of Indigenous People, for which several fundraisers were held over the weekend as well.

The community was treated to an opening concert of world music Friday night, and Native American dancing, singing and drumming at a special Cultural Evening held Saturday.

“It was through the good will of so many people who worked together to make this happen,” Nenadich said.

The weekend gathering, which followed meeting of tribal leaders in Fort Collins late last week, was originally to have been in Denver until plans fell through in early November.

Nenadich was put in touch with several people in the Roaring Fork Valley, including Rita Marsh, who runs the Davi Nikent organization in Carbondale, and valley resident Sue Gray.

“The response from the community has been awesome, and it shows you can put on an international event in three weeks,” Marsh said. “And, to have it here in the heartland of Ute country proved to be deeply meaningful.”

Ute elder Clifford Duncan said the high Rockies were a favorite place for the Ute people, until they were removed to the reservations 128 years ago following the Meeker Massacre.

“There are many sacred sites here that are still being used — connecting points of our ceremonies,” he said. “There is a connection to the land here in a spiritual way.”

Gray said she feels a connection to indigenous cultures, even though she is not indigenous herself.

“I felt called by the heart to the healing and love for humanity, and love for the earth that Ramon and his organization represents,” she said.

The week’s activities conclude with another fundraiser for the newly formed foundation, an Evening of Music at Steve’s Guitars in Carbondale tonight beginning at 7:30 p.m. Donations will be accepted.

A poor result for the opposition suggests an easier passage for social reforms and a lessening of demands for secession by departments traditionally opposed to Mr Morales, according to analysts.

Preliminary results say that Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian and Bolivia’s first indigenous president, won at least 61% of the vote, easily defeating his conservative opponents.

That is a higher percentage than he won in 2005 when he was elected for his first mandate.

If his victory is confirmed, it would also be the first time in Bolivia since 1964 that an incumbent president has won a second term – an unusual event in a country often synonymous with military coups and political instability.

The key electoral battleground was for seats in the new Plurinational Legislative Assembly. In the previous Senate, the opposition had a small majority which allowed them to block new legislation.

Under the new constitution which was ratified in a referendum last year, the method of electing senators has changed.

Exit polls suggest that Mr Morales’s party, the Movement to Socialism (MAS), has won at least 24 seats in the new 36-seat senate, which would give him a two-thirds majority.

However, it is unclear if the MAS has won enough seats in the new Chamber of Deputies to win a similar majority and ensure an easy passage for the 100-plus laws necessary to fully implement a new constitution.

Final official results will be known later this week.

Breakaway regions

The preliminary results suggest that the MAS has increased its vote in the wealthier eastern departments, where the opposition to President Morales has traditionally been based.

In the Santa Cruz department for example, exit polls suggest that Mr Morales’ party increased its vote to 40% from 33% in 2005.

In Tarija, Beni and Pando, MAS also improved its vote significantly.

According to Oxford Analytica, a research organisation, the degree of support in these areas “means that the prospect of secession is ever more remote”.

In 2007 and 2008 there was considerable speculation that Santa Cruz and other departments might break away from the highland, more indigenous, departments where support for Mr Morales is overwhelming.

John Crabtree of Oxford University says the improved performance of the MAS was due in part to the priority the party gave to Santa Cruz in its campaigning.

“Another element was the lessening of the climate of fear amongst the migrant population there,” Mr Crabtree says. “It also helped MAS that the opposition was divided and had lacklustre candidates.”

Likely changes

President Morales is expected to make the implementation of the new constitution his main legislative priority at the start of his second term.

Amongst the most important changes envisaged are:

• More indigenous rights and more indigenous participation in politics
• A reworking of the judiciary, whereby indigenous systems of justice will enjoy the same status as the official existing system; judges will be elected, and no longer appointed by congress
• Power decentralised into four levels of autonomy – departmental, regional, municipal and indigenous

The key to Mr Morales’ success has been his appeal to the 65% of the population who define themselves as indigenous and who see him as “one of theirs”.

They have also been the recipients of increased social spending boosted by high international prices for hydrocarbons, and more taxes on foreign oil and gas companies.

Cash payments have been made to poor families to encourage school attendance.

Extra pension payments have been to the elderly, and pre-natal and post-natal care bas been extended to mothers without health protection.

Some estimates suggest that the payments reached a quarter of Bolivia’s 10 million people this year.

According to recent analysis by the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), government revenue has increased by almost 20% of GDP since 2004.

The Morales government has spent massively in recent months to counteract the effect of the global recession.

CEPR says that from a fiscal surplus of 5% of GDP in early 2008 (worth several billion dollars), recent government spending meant this became a fiscal deficit in 2009.

The Bolivian economy is set to grow this year by between 2.5% and 3.5%, one of the highest anywhere in the Americas.

The IMF’s director of Western hemisphere countries, Nicolas Eyzaguirre, has praised the Morales government for what he called its “very responsible” macroeconomic policies.

More state intervention?

Morales supporters say that the greater state control of the oil and gas sectors helped to boost government income.

His critics say that state intervention may work well for redistributing income, but not for encouraging investment, technical and managerial expertise and the eradication of corruption.

Government ministers say they want to attract foreign investment into new areas like the development of Bolivia’s large deposits of lithium and iron ore.

“We want partners, not patrons” is the oft-repeated slogan.

“One priority for the coming years is industrialisation,” says Mr Crabtree, “by which the government means adding value to raw materials by processing them.”

Analysts say one key test will be whether the queue of foreign companies interested in developing Bolivia’s huge reserves of lithium will turn into a concrete deal between a private company and the state.

Lithium is seen as critical for developing a new generation of battery-driven cars.

President Evo Morales seems set to push ahead with the implementation of a new constitution to place indigenous peoples at the heart of Bolivia’s government and society after his victory in Sunday’s presidential election.

A poor result for the opposition suggests an easier passage for social reforms and a lessening of demands for secession by departments traditionally opposed to Mr Morales, according to analysts.

Preliminary results say that Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian and Bolivia’s first indigenous president, won at least 61% of the vote, easily defeating his conservative opponents.

That is a higher percentage than he won in 2005 when he was elected for his first mandate.

If his victory is confirmed, it would also be the first time in Bolivia since 1964 that an incumbent president has won a second term – an unusual event in a country often synonymous with military coups and political instability.

The key electoral battleground was for seats in the new Plurinational Legislative Assembly. In the previous Senate, the opposition had a small majority which allowed them to block new legislation.

Under the new constitution which was ratified in a referendum last year, the method of electing senators has changed.

Exit polls suggest that Mr Morales’s party, the Movement to Socialism (MAS), has won at least 24 seats in the new 36-seat senate, which would give him a two-thirds majority.

However, it is unclear if the MAS has won enough seats in the new Chamber of Deputies to win a similar majority and ensure an easy passage for the 100-plus laws necessary to fully implement a new constitution.

Final official results will be known later this week.

Breakaway regions

The preliminary results suggest that the MAS has increased its vote in the wealthier eastern departments, where the opposition to President Morales has traditionally been based.

In the Santa Cruz department for example, exit polls suggest that Mr Morales’ party increased its vote to 40% from 33% in 2005.

In Tarija, Beni and Pando, MAS also improved its vote significantly.

According to Oxford Analytica, a research organisation, the degree of support in these areas “means that the prospect of secession is ever more remote”.

In 2007 and 2008 there was considerable speculation that Santa Cruz and other departments might break away from the highland, more indigenous, departments where support for Mr Morales is overwhelming.

John Crabtree of Oxford University says the improved performance of the MAS was due in part to the priority the party gave to Santa Cruz in its campaigning.

“Another element was the lessening of the climate of fear amongst the migrant population there,” Mr Crabtree says. “It also helped MAS that the opposition was divided and had lacklustre candidates.”

Likely changes

President Morales is expected to make the implementation of the new constitution his main legislative priority at the start of his second term.

Amongst the most important changes envisaged are:

• More indigenous rights and more indigenous participation in politics
• A reworking of the judiciary, whereby indigenous systems of justice will enjoy the same status as the official existing system; judges will be elected, and no longer appointed by congress
• Power decentralised into four levels of autonomy – departmental, regional, municipal and indigenous

The key to Mr Morales’ success has been his appeal to the 65% of the population who define themselves as indigenous and who see him as “one of theirs”.

They have also been the recipients of increased social spending boosted by high international prices for hydrocarbons, and more taxes on foreign oil and gas companies.

Cash payments have been made to poor families to encourage school attendance.

Extra pension payments have been to the elderly, and pre-natal and post-natal care bas been extended to mothers without health protection.

Some estimates suggest that the payments reached a quarter of Bolivia’s 10 million people this year.

According to recent analysis by the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), government revenue has increased by almost 20% of GDP since 2004.

The Morales government has spent massively in recent months to counteract the effect of the global recession.

CEPR says that from a fiscal surplus of 5% of GDP in early 2008 (worth several billion dollars), recent government spending meant this became a fiscal deficit in 2009.

The Bolivian economy is set to grow this year by between 2.5% and 3.5%, one of the highest anywhere in the Americas.

The IMF’s director of Western hemisphere countries, Nicolas Eyzaguirre, has praised the Morales government for what he called its “very responsible” macroeconomic policies.

More state intervention?

Morales supporters say that the greater state control of the oil and gas sectors helped to boost government income.

His critics say that state intervention may work well for redistributing income, but not for encouraging investment, technical and managerial expertise and the eradication of corruption.

Government ministers say they want to attract foreign investment into new areas like the development of Bolivia’s large deposits of lithium and iron ore.

“We want partners, not patrons” is the oft-repeated slogan.

“One priority for the coming years is industrialisation,” says Mr Crabtree, “by which the government means adding value to raw materials by processing them.”

Analysts say one key test will be whether the queue of foreign companies interested in developing Bolivia’s huge reserves of lithium will turn into a concrete deal between a private company and the state.

Lithium is seen as critical for developing a new generation of battery-driven cars.

The country’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, launched his so-called “indigenous autonomy” policy in the eastern lowlands.

Peasant and indigenous communities will be entitled to vote for more autonomy in referendums next December.

The provisions are contained in a constitution passed earlier this year.

The new charter was bitterly opposed by Bolivia’s traditional elite.

On Sunday, the provisions allowing for indigenous autonomy were presented in a special event in the eastern region of Santa Cruz.

Mr Morales said it was “a historic day for the peasant and indigenous movement”.

“Your president, your companion, your brother Evo Morales might make mistakes but will never betray the fight started by our ancestors and the fight of the Bolivian people,” he said.

Mr Morales has championed Bolivia’s indigenous people, who for centuries were banished to the margins of society.

The BBC’s Andres Schipani reports from Bolivia that a largely peaceful revolution has empowered the indigenous majority this year.

Indigenous groups have increasingly seized political control, transforming the country into a 21st Century standard bearer for South America’s native populations, he says.

But many opposed to Mr Morales and the new constitution believe he is polarising the country by dividing it along racial lines, our correspondent adds.

The referendums in December will be held alongside Bolivia’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

At least 22 police and nine protesters have died, officials say. Protesters say 30 indigenous Indians are dead.

The trouble began on Friday near Bagua with protesters angry at plans to drill for oil and gas on ancestral land.

They took 38 police officers hostage – at least nine were killed on Saturday as the army moved in to free them.

This is the worst violence in Peru since the end of the Shining Path insurgency in the 1990s and the biggest internal challenge faced by President Alan Garcia since he came to power in 2006, the BBC’s Americas editor Emilio San Pedro says.

‘Aggression’

The curfew – from 1500 to 0600 (2000-1100 GMT) – took effect immediately, as the authorities announced they had made 72 arrests.

In a statement, President Garcia said Peru was suffering from “an aggression against democracy”, and vowed to respond “with composure and firmness”.

Due to the “irresponsible aggression” by the protesters, police officers “have been savagely and barbarically murdered”, he said on Saturday.

The killers used “identical methods as those used by the Shining Path” guerrillas, said Garcia, who stated that “humble police that were surrendering unarmed” had their throats slit and were attacked with spears.

But protest leaders have vowed to keep on the pressure.

As the army moved in to secure the area, thousands of Indians with wooden spears said they would keep up blocking roads if government forces did not halt efforts to break up their demonstrations.

“We are fighting because we fear our land will be taken away,” said Denis Tangoa, a protester at one blockade told Reuters news agency.

Fuel and transport blockades have disrupted Peru’s Amazon region for almost two months.

The indigenous tribes want to force Congress to repeal new laws that encourage foreign mining in the rain forest.

“We are not going to give up until they reverse these laws that will damage us,” Luis Huansi, a tribal leader told Reuters.

Critics says Mr Garcia made a huge error when he failed to take into account the native groups’ opposition exploitation of what they consider their ancestral territory, reports the BBC’s Dan Collyns from the area.

All hopes for dialogue now seem a distant possibility, our correspondent says.

In a restaurant near the exquisitely preserved old town of Sucre, high in the Bolivian Andes, a gaudy dance troupe entertain with performances depicting the many different regions of the country.

At one of the tables is Alex Aillon, the executive director of the town’s bicentenary commission.

He has been preparing for three years for the anniversary celebrations to mark the start of Bolivia’s independence struggle from Spanish rule 200 years ago.

“We were at the centre of the ideas of the revolution at the time,” he says.

“Sucre was a very important centre, because we have one of the oldest universities in South America here, San Francisco Javier. We are very proud that we started off the ideas of the revolution and were the first people to bring down the Spanish government.”

The events in Sucre are the first of a series of celebrations which will take place across Latin America over the next two years as people mark independence anniversaries from their colonial rulers.

But in Sucre, the festival has a sombre side. There is still a huge split between the city’s European descendents and the indigenous people – a split which is repeated in many countries of the region.

On the outskirts of town, in the bustling central market, fresh food and produce are brought in from the surrounding countryside.

The music that blares out from pop videos is sung by Indian girls with pigtails; the language spoken by the women in traditional bowler hats and shawls is the Indian Quechua.

But while the culture of the majority indigenous people in Bolivia is flourishing, they still feel the underdogs.

In the main independence square, with brass bands playing and marching for the celebrations, I met Rafael Garcia Mora, a Jesuit priest who has worked for 25 years in the Indian movements.

He believes that in many ways, indigenous people still feel colonised.

“Here they kept up the same style and habits of Spain,” he said.

“In other places they kicked out the colonialists but in Bolivia they cut their ties with the empire and established their own government structures and constitutions so they could just carry on benefiting as they had always done.”

Sense of injustice

Despite having a president, Evo Morales, who is an Aymara Indian, the indigenous groups of Bolivia continue to be among the nation’s poorest, working as peasant farmers or cheap labour.

And according to Rafael Mora, negative stereotypes abound.

“There are many myths saying Indians are dangerous. From when they are very young, children in the cities are told “don’t go there or the Indian will get you”. In cities like Sucre, people panic if you say ‘Indians are coming to take over’,” he said.

“In the past, people were told Indians would come, rape the women and steal everything. Actually, it is the other way round. Even today young Indian girls working as maids are still sexually abused. It’s common for young men to be allowed to use them to get sexual experience.”

Many in the city of Sucre would disagree with these views.

In the cool courtyard of one of Sucre’s beautiful renovated colonial buildings, Epifania Terrazas, the head of the city’s social services department, says the people of Sucre have no such sentiments.

“We don’t have discrimination here. We have a great affection for everyone particularly our people in the countryside. Here we don’t have Indians, we are all from peasant stock here.”

But the sense of injustice among indigenous people goes deep.

At a local Quechua language radio station, Marianela Paco Duran, one of their journalists has just come off air.

She was attacked as she covered last year’s Independence Day celebrations, along with other Indians who were beaten and stripped as they tried to march to Sucre’s main square. They had been trying to demonstrate their support for President Morales’ constitutional reforms, which give Indians many rights and which recognise their culture.

Merianela Duran still weeps as she recalls the humiliation inflicted on her people by those she considers colonialists.

President Morales has pledged reforms
to help the indigenous communities

They said to us: ‘Go back to your pigs, to the countryside and your cows.’ We must never let them humiliate us like that again. It is still in their psychology. They behaved as if there were defending their own, as it if was their right,” she said.

Bolivia, like many Andean countries, is struggling to address the imbalance at the heart of its society; here a minority seems unable to accept that the majority Indians are equal.

Governments in the region are having to fight to introduce constitutions and reforms that give rights to Indians, and recognise their culture.

As Latin Americans begin to celebrate 200 years of independence, colonial attitudes of dominance have yet to disappear.

The armed forces will intervene to ensure the operation of roads, airports and other essential services, Peru’s ministry of defence said.

A day before the protestors said they would begin an insurgency to defend their rights, a threat later withdrawn.

Some 30,000 people have held a month-long protest in Peru’s Amazon region.

There have been clashes with the police as the indigenous protesters call for the repeal of decrees passed over the last two years relaxing restrictions over oil exploration and development.

President Alan Garcia has said all Peruvians should benefit from the country’s natural resources not just the “small group of people who live there”.

“We have to understand when there are resources like oil, gas and timber, they don’t belong only to the people who had the fortune to be born there,” President Garcia said.

Under Peru’s constitution the state is the owner of the country’s mineral and hydrocarbon wealth.

Ancestral territories

On Friday, Alberto Pizango, head of the indigenous Amazonian organisation, AIDESEP, said talks with the government had broken down.

He said their ancestral territories were being handed over to multinational companies without consultation.

But he denied he or the movement of 65 indigenous groups he leads are against development.

“What we want is development from our perspective,” Mr Pizango said.

On 8 May the government declared a state of emergency for 60 days in parts of Peru’s Amazon region where the protestors have disrupted transportation links including airports and bridges.

Huge stakes are involved, says the BBC’s Dan Collyns in Lima. Last month, a French oil company, Perenco, pledged to invest $2b (£1.32b) in one rainforest oil field.

Indigenous communities complain that some 70% of Peruvian Amazon territory is now leased for oil and gas exploration, putting at risk their own lives and the biodiversity of the Amazon.

The Peruvian rainforest is the biggest stretch of Amazon outside Brazil.

It follows a landmark ruling by the country’s Supreme Court that the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation should be solely for indigenous people.

The non-indigenous rice farmers and farm workers say they are victims of “legalised robbery”.

But the authorities say they will be properly compensated.

In March, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that the area in the northern border state of Roraima should be maintained as a single continuous territory exclusively for use by the indigenous population.

The decision was hailed as a major victory for indigenous rights, and was also regarded as setting an important precedent for future court cases.

However, the ruling was also a defeat for the non-indigenous rice producers and farm workers who lived and worked in the area, and who said their removal would undermine the economy of Roraima.

Around 300 police and soldiers are now reported to have begun an operation to remove any remaining rice producers and farm workers from the 1.7 million hectare reservation.

There were said to be around 30 non-indigenous families in the reservation as the deadline approached, but the authorities say force will only be used if they meet with violent resistance.

Some of the rice producers have been criticised for destroying farm buildings as they left the area.

‘Human zoo’

As this sensitive operation was getting underway, the governor of Roraima, Jose de Anchieta Jr, was accused of racism by the state agency which looks after indigenous rights.

The governor said the federal government had not provided sufficient resources for the local indigenous population to live in the reservation, which he said had unfortunately been turned into a “human zoo.”

The authorities insist they will provide the necessary support.

The reservation, which is in the far north of Brazil on the border with Venezuela and Guyana, is home to around 20,000 indigenous people.

Officials say the operation to ensure the Supreme Court ruling has been obeyed could take some days to complete.

By 10 votes to one, judges ruled to maintain an Indian reservation in the northern border state of Roraima as a single, continuous territory.

It means that a small group of outside rice farmers with plantations in the area will now have to leave.

The head of the court also accused the government of failing the Indians.

This was the third occasion the court had met to reach a decision on the question, and the delays appeared to be just another indication of the sensitivity involved, the BBC’s Gary Duffy reports from Brazil.

The Raposa Serra do Sol reservation, which stretches more than 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) along the Venezuelan border, is home to up to 20,000 Amazonian Indians.

Indigenous leaders had feared a ruling against them would have signalled to land-owners and loggers that it was acceptable to invade their territory.

‘Complete neglect’

Thursday’s decision confirmed a decree issued by Brazil’s President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who established Raposa Serra do Sol in 2005 exclusively as an area for use by the local Indian population.

Gilmar Mendes, president of the court, said the ruling should set a precedent for Indian land rights.

“We’ve established a statute that has to be applied not only in the Raposa Serra do Sol case, but also in other cases of demarcation,” he said.

Mr Mendes also criticised what he called the neglect of the indigenous community by the government.

He said that beyond setting out the territory where they lived, the Indian population had been left to their own luck.

“It is a complete neglect of public responsibility,” he added.

Our correspondent notes that the case has raised fears in military circles that it would create an effectively autonomous Indian reservation running along a lengthy section of Brazil’s border.

To meet those concerns, the court imposed a series of conditions that guarantee access by the police and military to the territory.

‘Conflict possible’

The land dispute has turned violent on occasion with several Indians shot and injured in May of last year.

“There is no peaceful solution,” Nelson Itikawa, president of the Roraima Rice Growers Association, told the Brazilian government news service.

“It’s possible there will be a conflict – there are people who will lose control.”

To add to a complicated dispute, our correspondent reports, one indigenous group in the reservation supports the farmers.

Police in the Roraima city of Boa Vista said the situation was calm.

“There have been no demonstrations for or against the reservation, and nothing has happened to justify beefing up security near the reservation,” said police spokesman Jose Negreiros.

Last week 17 Awa people, among them women and children, were killed in an attack blamed on left-wing Farc rebels.

Indigenous leaders say the latest victims were killed as they were trying to flee the first attack.

The United Nations has urged the Colombian authorities to investigate and says it fears a mass exodus from the area.

Luis Evelis Andrade, leader of Colombia’s National Indigenous Organisation, said: “We got the news from authorities in the area that 10 people were fleeing as refugees, running from the first massacre, and were then killed themselves.”

The BBC’s Jeremy McDermott, in Medellin, says the security forces have still not made it to the site of the first killings, in the area of Barbacoas, in the southern province of Narino.

Drug crops

Some 21,000 Awa live in Narino, a remote part of Colombia home to an abundance of coca crops – the raw material for cocaine.

About 50 Awa members are thought to have been killed this year as illegal armies fight for control of drug crops and routes through Narino to the Pacific, where the drugs leave for the US market.

Foremost among those illegal armies is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

Narino governor Antonio Navarro told Colombian radio he was certain the Farc was behind the first killings but he could not confirm if it was responsible for the second, according to the AFP news agency.

If the Farc is to blame for the murders, it would indicate that the rebels have decided to target the Awa tribe, who they accuse of working with the army, our correspondent says.

It would also mean they want to drive them from their reservations in this region, our correspondent adds.

Addressing supporters at the presidential palace, he said the result marked the birth of a new Bolivia.

Exit polls for some TV stations put the yes vote at about 60%.

The new constitution gives autonomy to indigenous peoples and boosts state control of the economy, but is opposed by many of the traditional elite.

Many mixed-race people in the fertile eastern lowlands rejected the charter and four of Bolivia’s nine provinces had a majority no vote, according to the exit polls.

Conservative leaders in one district accused President Morales of planning to impose a totalitarian regime, but he was undeterred.

Despite the yes vote, there is likely to be continued opposition to the constitution as it goes through parliament, says the BBC’s Candace Piette in La Paz.

‘New era’

“The Bolivian people have reiterated their commitment to democracy and to the democratic acts which are happening in peace today,” said Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian.

Evo Morales has been trying to reform Bolivia since being elected

The Bolivian leader has followed his closest allies, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, in rewriting their countries’ constitutions to extend their rule, tackle inequalities and exert greater control over natural resources, observers say.

Support for Mr Morales was highest in the western highlands where Indians are a majority.

“Now is starting a new era in which indigenous people will be the citizens of this country. I think this is the most important part of this constitution,” said Elisa Canqui, who represents one of the Indian communities in La Paz.

Opponents

Many Bolivians of European or mixed-race descent strongly oppose the constitution, but the head of an international monitoring team, Raul Lagos, said voting had been largely peaceful.

Opponents concentrated in Bolivia’s eastern provinces, which hold rich gas deposits, argue that the new constitution would create two classes of citizenship – putting indigenous people ahead of others.

The original draft of the constitution was more radical but Mr Morales made concessions after violent protests against his rule, including a promise that he would not try to win a third term in 2014.

Under pressure from wealthy ranchers, who feared their farms would be broken up and handed over to the poor, Mr Morales also revised the charter so that limits on land holdings will only apply to future land sales.

The referendum will be followed by elections for president, vice-president and Congress in December.