Bolivian govt appeals for calm after soldiers retake airport

Bolivia's government and an opposition figure appealed for calm Saturday, after days of violent unrest that prompted President Evo Morales to declare martial law in one of five rebel states. The plea, relayed by Tarija state governor Mario Cossio after a night of negotiations in La Paz, came amid a diplomatic crisis triggered by the insurgency that pits Bolivia and its allies in South America against the United States, which is accused of meddling. The US ambassadors to Bolivia and Venezuela have been ordered to leave, prompting a tit-for-tat response by Washington against the envoys from those countries. Honduras has also refused to accept the credentials of a new US ambassador in solidarity with Bolivia. Bolivian President Evo Morales on Friday ordered a plane-load of troops to re-take the airport in the northeastern town of Cobija, which had been seized by anti-government militants a week ago. The 100 soldiers fired bullets to clear the facility, and one man was reportedly killed. Six people were wounded. La Razon daily cited Defense Minister Walker San Miguel as saying the fatality was a soldier. As many as 16 people, according to local media, have died in armed clashes in Cojiba since Wednesday. Morales has imposed a state of emergency there and throughout the rest of the state of Pando, banning demonstrations, firearms and having police enforce a night-time curfew on the population of 70,000. Bolivia is now split between the west of the country, where much of the indigenous majority supporting Morales, an Aymara Indian, live, and the more prosperous lowland east, where five conservative governors are pushing for autonomy. The governors claim Morales, a union leader and coca farmer before becoming president in 2006, is ruling in dictatorial style. They are demanding more control over lucrative gas fields in their territories and reject Morales's drive to break up big properties to give land to destitute Indians. Cossio went to La Paz as a representative of the five to resume dialogue that has stalled several times in the past, most recently in the wake of an August 10 referendum that strengthened Morales's mandate, but also those of his chief gubernatorial foes. "We have agreed on the need for pacification of the country and an end to the violence," he told reporters after seven hours of talks with government officials. He said he needed to consult with the other opposition governors of Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni and Chuquisaca, but expressed hope that the door was now open to negotiating "a pact which will let us resolve the problems through national reconciliation." Morales, the country's first indigenous leader, is intent on remodeling the country along socialist lines similar to the policies of his principal ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez has warned he would intervene militarily in Bolivia if Morales was toppled or killed, but his government had to soften that tone after it was rejected by Bolivian army chiefs and protested by Bolivians burning Venezuelan flags. Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said: "We are going to resolve our problems between us Bolivians.