LA PAZ, Bolivia, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A simmering row over an international highway passing through Bolivia's Amazonian region has pitted President Evo Morales against a political challenge that threatens to undermine his power base.
The furor over the 190-mile road, which is intended to benefit both Bolivia and Brazil and link the two states across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has cost Morales two Cabinet ministers, who resigned over police crackdowns on protesters.
Protesters arrayed against the road construction argue the project, largely funded by Brazil, is certain to displace hundreds of indigenous Bolivians in communities along the planned route, lead to drug trafficking from increased coca plantations and ruin pristine ecological treasures.
Amazonian communities are among major political backers of Morales, who belongs to Aymara indigenous ethnic group.
Tens of thousands of Bolivians marched through La Paz to condemn police brutality and Morales' failure to halt violent crackdown on protesters. Protester groups said they would continue marches into the capital until the road project was canceled or altered to protect the endangered communities.
Morales called a halt to construction this week but campaigners said they wanted firm guarantees the road building wouldn't resume.
A populist left-wing activist, Morales has seen his approval ratings plummet as the row continues. Brazil is financing the road, which not only cuts across the territory linking the two oceans but also reverses promises Morales made to the country's indigenous communities.
In 2010 he launched a new constitution granted Bolivia's 36 indigenous groups "autonomy" but left it largely undefined. Critics said that controversy over the road project was the first major test of the presidential constitutional reform, that was resented by the country's Mestizo and European population.
Of about 11 million Bolivians, one-third are Mestizo and 15 percent are of European descent.
Morales already faces a tense relationship with the influential and wealthy groups among these groups that want him out.
Although many Bolivians support Morales' view that the highway will help toward poverty reduction in the indigenous communities, the critics warn that the road will create more problems than it will solve.
Two Cabinet ministers resigned after police used teargas against protesters and detained several of them, dispersing a protest camp in the process. The defense minister resigned in anger over the police raid, while the interior minister stepped aside partly to limit political damage to Morales.
Although construction works are at a standstill, Morales hasn't responded to the protesters' demand that the road be diverted to bypass and protect fragile communities exposed to risks from the road. Plans call for the road to cut through the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory National Park in the eastern lowlands state of Beni.
