Bolivian President Evo Morales on Sunday lifted the martial law imposed over two months ago in the once-violent province of Pando, likely paving the way for a referendum on a new constitution early next year.
The martial law was lifted Sunday midnight, said Bolivian Interior Minister Alfredo Rada, according to information reaching here from La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia.
The Bolivian government imposed martial law on Sept. 12 in the northern province of Pando, the site of a series of rampages that took the lives of at least 30 peasants, all Morales supporters.
However, the country's electoral court said at the beginning of November that it would not authorize a referendum on a new constitution if martial law continued to be in force in Pando.
Bolivian referendum laws say such a vote cannot be called if there are restrictions to civil freedoms at any place in the country.
During the few weeks before the imposition of martial law, violent acts had increased in the opposition-controlled provinces of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando. Anti-government protesters blocked roads, occupied public buildings and destroyed public property to vent their discontent with Morales' social and economic policies.
Morales, a leftist and Bolivia's first indigenous leader, accused the opposition rightists of trying to overthrow him. Pando's Governor Leopoldo Fernandez, who was accused by Morales of being responsible for the deaths of the 30 peasants, was arrested on charges of genocide on Sept. 16.
Source: Xinhua
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