LA PAZ, Bolivia, July 16 (UPI) -- Bolivian army troops and large numbers of police are being deployed throughout the country to protect voting on Sunday amid threats of violent boycotts and a coup plots by groups opposed to the controversial referendum on state ownership of Bolivia's gas reserves.
The high level of security is being interpreted as a show of force by President Carlos Mesa who wants to use the public consultation as a mandate to control energy policy and strengthen his government.
Leftist union organizations and indigenous groups opposed to the wording of five questions being put to voters, are organizing boycotts, strikes, road blockades and other street protests to sabotage government plans. Some such as Alejandro Veliz who heads the Union of Farmworkers in Chochabamba have even called for burning of ballot boxes, attacking polling stations, and kidnapping of electoral officials.
In the eastern gas-producing regions, groups of workers have shut off valves of pipelines pumping gas into neighboring Argentina.
A three-day work stoppage in the Aymara satellite city of El Alto outside La Paz, threatens to paralyze the capital and affect turnout. Strike actions are backed by Bolivia's Workers Central led by Jaime Solares who has described the referendum as a "sellout to the multinational corporations."
Mesa's public consultation is drawing fire from both sides of the political spectrum in an increasingly polarized debate.
Leftist groups suspect that the government intends to use vague wording contained in the questions to negotiate new deals with foreign oil companies. Opinion polls indicate that a majority of Bolivians favor nationalizing energy reserves, reversing the privatization that took place in the mid-1990s.
Private sector leaders, on the other hand, have told United Press International that they fear a victory for the "yes" vote could justify expropriations.
Svenko Matcovik, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Santa Cruz, Bolivia's second largest city and main center of the gas and oil industry, accuses Mesa of promoting policies that are "chasing away foreign investment and destroying the productive base of the economy."
The referendum has backing from Bolivia's main leftist party, Movement to Socialism, known as MAS, which has told followers to vote "yes" on the first three questions concerning the takeover of privately owned shares in the state energy enterprise and the direction of marketing and distribution.
But bowing to pressures from grass-roots supporters, opposition leader Evo Morales is now calling for a "no" vote on the last two questions concerning exports, a highly sensitive point for Bolivian leftists and ultra-nationalists who do not want to sell gas to neighboring Chile or the United States.
While Morales has assured his party that he plans to push for the "immediate nationalization" of gas and hydrocarbons, Mesa said in a newspaper interview on Thursday that he would oppose any nationalizations.
Bolivia's president is reported to have switched positions after coming under intensified pressure from private-sector leaders and the high command of the armed forces over the past few days.
Just a week ago, he gave a speech saying that he planned to "nationalize in phases."
Army troops were suddenly moved to reinforce security around key government buildings in La Paz Tuesday night, following reports of a coup conspiracy by members of the armed forces. The homes of at least three senior reserve officers have been searched by police looking for members of a group who had been visiting various military garrisons to urge an uprising, according to government officials.
Two retired colonels have been identified as ring leaders of the alleged conspiracy orchestrated by a secret organization called Supreme Council of National Defense, according to the national attorney general's office which reports compiling a list of 26 suspects.
Armed forces chief of staff, Adm. Luis Aranda, confirms that the investigations are taking place. But he denies that any active members of the armed forces were involved in any coup attempt. "What retired officers do is their business" he told reporters on Thursday.
The minister for indigenous affairs, Ricardo Calla, who is closely linked with MAS has told reporters that "right-wing parties connected to deposed President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada are behind a secret network inside the military conspiring against president Mesa." Sanchez de Lozada was overthrown in a popular revolt last year triggered over gas-export policy.
Interior minister Alfonso Ferrufino has told CNN that "powerful groups that were displaced last October could be making great efforts to cut short the mandate of President Mesa."
According to versions of the current investigations, the coup conspiracy may have involved the detonation of a car bomb in the capital's main square to create the pretext for a military takeover.
Interior ministry officials say that clandestine meetings have taken place in various homes and a private university that were searched on Tuesday. Dynamite charges were said to have been found and two women at the location are being questioned.
