Bolivia marks freedom bicentenary

Mr Morales said capitalism was now the enemy that had to be fought

Bolivians marked the 200th anniversary of their country's uprising against Spanish rule with rival ceremonies in different parts of the country.

Addressing the nation, President Evo Morales said that Latin Americans were engaged in a second struggle for liberation against capitalism.

Meanwhile, the opposition held parades in the constitutional capital Sucre.

Bolivia is the first of many South American states that will celebrate bicentennials in the next few years.

'New enemy'

President Morales made his speech in the remote Andean village of El Villar - some 220km from Sucre - where one of Bolivia's greatest independence fighters, Juana Azurduy, had been based.

A former trade unionist, he said capitalism had put the wealth in the hands of the few and it was now the enemy that had to be fought, the BBC's Candace Piette reports.

Mr Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, told the gathering of farmers and dignitaries that Latin Americans have been oppressed for years and are still fighting against internal and external enemies.

"The people who forget their struggle and their history are a people who have no awareness of their destiny," the president was quoted as saying by Spanish news agency, EFE.

Meanwhile in Sucre, where the independence struggle started 200 years ago, opposition leaders attended a separate event and used their speeches to criticise Mr Morales for "creating divisions" in the country.

There were processions through the streets and the city's church bells were rung at the end of days of dancing displays and school military marching bands in the main square, our correspondent says.

Police in Sucre had been on high alert, following last year's violent attacks, when Indians were picked out and beaten, some stripped and publicly humiliated.