BOLIVIA: Voting was mostly peaceful as Bolivians turned out on Sunday for a referendum that has split the country between its majority Indians and European-descended elites. The vote concerns the future of the countries huge natural-gas reserves.
Voters in South America's poorest county are deciding whether to continue exporting gas and whether the state should retake much control of the industry from the private sector.
The battle over who profits from one of Latin America's biggest gas reserves pits Bolivia's low-income Indian majority, calling for national control, against elites who say Bolivia needs the foreign investment that more exports would bring.
Fury at a $5 billion plan to export gas via Chile, Bolivia's historical enemy, lay behind a siege of the capital by Indian groups in October in which dozens of protesters were killed by troops. The violence led to the ousting of pro-Washington president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
His replacement, Mr Carlos Mesa, called the referendum to appease Indians who made nationalisation a rallying cry of October's revolt, and he has turned the election into a vote of confidence.Polls show a majority supports Mr Mesa's aim of having greater national control of gas exports.
Victory in the referendum would bolster Mr Mesa's hand. Defeat could force him from office and plunge Bolivia into civil unrest.
There were only sporadic reports of violence by radical Indian groups that had threatened to burn ballot boxes and boycott the vote.
"I urge you to exercise your right to vote," Mr Mesa said. "This vote shows that peace is winning over the violence."
Washington fears more unrest in Bolivia - the world's third-biggest source of coca leaf, which is used to make cocaine - could lead to more drug smuggling.
The vote could also send a political signal across Latin America, where leaders in Argentina to Peru face a backlash after a decade of market reforms that many argue have only benefited foreign firms and the rich.