LA PAZ/SANTA CRUZ (Bolivia), Sept 13: Bolivia’s leftist government declared martial law on Friday in a remote Amazon region where at least 15 people were killed in a wave of political violence sweeping the impoverished country. The government banned protests and meetings in the far northern Pando region and said anyone carrying weapons would be arrested. Officials said six more bodies had been found following a clash in the area on Thursday.

“In Pando, it’s been a real massacre,” government minister Alfredo Rada told reporters, referring to violence between supporters of President Evo Morales and those of rightist provincial governors, who oppose his socialist reforms.

Sacha Llorenti, deputy minister for coordination of social movements said almost all of the dead were pro-government peasant farmers, ambushed by gunmen armed with machine guns.

Local television showed corpses being loaded onto a flatbed truck. Pando Sen. Abraham Cuellar said some bodies had been thrown into a river and that 20 people were still missing.

Anti-government protesters continued to block roads in eastern areas, causing fuel and food shortages in the opposition-led city of Santa Cruz. Officials said protesters had destroyed or set fire to about 30 public buildings.

The martial law decree came as Morales’ government held talks with one of the opposition governors in a bid to defuse the crisis.

Mario Cossio, governor of the natural gas-rich Tarija region and representing three other rebel governors who have rejected talks, met Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera at the presidential palace in La Paz. A government spokesman said Morales had decided not to take part.

“We’re here because of our clear will to establish a base for a process of dialogue which will pave the way for a pact, a national agreement, a process of national reconciliation,” Cossio told reporters before the meeting.

Morales, who won a recall vote in August with 67 per cent of the vote, said his administration was willing to talk with its opponents but that reaching a deal would be difficult.

CHAOS: Morales, a former coca farmer and Bolivia’s first Indian president, has angered opponents with plans to overhaul the constitution and break up ranches to give land to peasants.

“Dialogue is vital to restore order,” Llorenti said as the talks stretched into a fifth hour.

The governors want greater autonomy for their regions and blame Morales for recent violence and sabotage to pipelines that has caused chaos in the natural gas industry, Bolivia’s biggest source of income.

Morales, a close ally of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, repeated accusations that the opposition was following orders from US Ambassador Philip Goldberg, whom he threw out of the country earlier this week.

Washington retaliated by expelling Bolivia’s ambassador.

The State Department, which called Morales’ actions a sign of “weakness and desperation”, approved the departure of nonessential staff from Bolivia.

Morales says he wants a socialist transformation in Bolivia, but some of his reforms have stalled due to fierce opposition in the wealthier east, which is run by elites of mostly European descent.

The escalating crisis in Bolivia has caused concern among its neighbours. Leaders of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and other countries expressed support for Morales.

Honduras told a US envoy not to present his credentials as ambassador in a diplomatic snub in support of Bolivia, while Venezuela’s Chavez said he would go to any length to defend Morales, implying military action. He also expelled the US ambassador to Caracas.

However, Bolivia’s military said it would not allow any intervention and pledged restraint and respect for democracy.

“To the president of Venezuela, Mr Hugo Chavez, and to the international community, we say that the armed forces (of Bolivia) emphatically reject any foreign intervention of any kind, wherever they be from,” armed forces Commander in Chief Luis Trigo said.

Troops wrested control of the main airport in Pando from protesters on Friday and fired into the air, the government said. It did not comment on media reports that at least one person was killed in the incident.

Soldiers have been sent to protect natural gas facilities, but protests and sabotage to valves and pipelines interrupted natural gas exports on Thursday. Supplies to both Brazil and Argentina were back to near normal levels.—Reuters