Bolivia's president calls unrest an attempted coup

South American presidents met urgently yesterday hoping to prevent a political collapse in Bolivia, where the government planned to charge a rebellious eastern governor with genocide for allegedly ordering the machine-gunning of peasants.

Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, arrived at the hastily called summit having effectively lost control of half of his country. Anti-Morales protesters have blocked highways, taken over national government offices, closed border crossings and sabotaged pipelines, briefly forcing a cutoff of nearly half of Bolivia's natural gas exports to Brazil.

The most serious challenge yet to Morales' presidency is being spurred by governors of Bolivia's autonomy-seeking lowland provinces, home to the nation's energy deposits and best farmland.

"I've come here to explain to the presidents of South America" that these governors have attempted a coup, Morales said. He accused them of "inciting crimes against humanity by groups massacring the poorest of my country."

The governors want a larger share of the nation's gas profits, and are demanding that Morales cancel the centerpiece of his 3-year tenure: a planned referendum on a new constitution that would give Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority more power, let Morales run for a consecutive second term and transfer fallow terrain to landless peasants.

Morales has the support of most Bolivians — voters ratified his presidency by an impressive 67 percent in a recall referendum on 10 August — a 13 percent jump over what the native Aymara and former coca-growers union leader won in December 2005 presidential elections.

But the same referendum also gave several of the rebellious governors renewed support in their provinces, where Morales' authority is tenuous at best.

Bolivia's chief prosecutor, Mario Uribe, said he would charge Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez and other top officials in Pando, the jungle province on the Brazilian border where 30 people were killed in political violence last week, with genocide for provoking "a bloody massacre."