BOLIVIA:Bolivian president Evo Morales says he will go back to farming coca leaves if he loses an August 10th recall vote arising from a power struggle with right-wing governors.
Amid a conflict over demands for greater regional autonomy, Mr Morales, a left-winger, and most of the country's nine regional governors are scheduled to face a recall vote that could force them out of office.
"If I get ratified, I'll get to stay 2½ years more. If [my mandate] is revoked I'll go back to . . . my coca land plot," Mr Morales said in a speech reported by state news agency ABI late on Sunday.
Mr Morales, an ally of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez and a fierce US critic, became the impoverished country's first president of indigenous descent in January 2006.
He worked for years as a coca farmer before rising to prominence as the leader of the powerful coca growers' union in the 1990s.
Coca leaves are the main ingredient used to make cocaine. But they are also revered by Bolivian Indians for medicinal and nutritional properties and widely used in rituals.
Mr Morales proposed the recall vote late last year in an apparent bid to weaken the opposition, which governs several regions in central and eastern Bolivia.
The conservative governors of four regions demanding more autonomy from the central government, including Ruben Costa, the governor of the wealthy Santa Cruz province, recently agreed to take part in the ballot despite previously vowing to boycott it.
Their push for more autonomy is at the heart of a power struggle between the central government and the rightist opposition, which lost leverage when Mr Morales took office. - ( Reuters)