By Eduardo Garcia
LA PAZ (Reuters) - Leftist President Evo Morales onWednesday asked the U.S. ambassador to leave Bolivia, blaminghim for intensified opposition protests that shut down a keynatural gas pipeline to Brazil.
"The ambassador of the United States is conspiring againstdemocracy and wants Bolivia to break apart," Morales saidduring a speech at the presidential palace in La Paz.
Morales, an ally of anti-Washington leftist leaderVenezuela President Hugo Chavez, said he had asked his foreignaffairs minister to send a letter to the U.S. Embassy askingAmbassador Philip Goldberg to "urgently return to his country."
The U.S. Embassy said it had no comment and had not beenformally informed of Morales' decision.
Anti-Morales protesters continued an occupation ofgovernment buildings in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, anopposition stronghold, for a second day on Wednesday and alsoattacked energy facilities, forcing the country to reducenatural gas exports.
Bolivia's state energy company YPFB said it had to reduceoverall natural gas exports to neighbouring Brazil by about 10percent after anti-government protesters attacked a pipeline inwhat the government described as a "terrorist act," forcing theclosure of the pipeline.
"(Natural gas) exports to Brazil have been reduced by 3million cubic meters," the head of YPFB Santos Ramirez toldreporters in La Paz.
Brazil's energy ministry, however, said shipments ofBolivian natural gas were steady at 31 million cubic meters aday.
The protests stem from a power struggle between Morales andthe governors of five of the country's nine provinces, who aredemanding more autonomy and a larger share of the country'sbooming energy revenues.
Protesters also stormed the Vuelta Grande natural gas fieldin central Chuquisaca province forcing gas producer Chaco, aunit of Bolivian state energy company YPFB, to halt productionon Tuesday night.
"Some 100 people occupied the field and we had to stopoperations for security reasons," said Juan Callau, head ofChaco's institutional relations. The plant will not be able torestart production until the protesters withdraw, he said.
Vuelta Grande produces about 2.5 million cubic meters ofnatural gas a day to domestic and export markets, but thecompany could not immediately say how exports have beenaffected.
Morales, who nationalized the energy industry two yearsago, had sent troops to protect energy facilities afteropposition protesters threatened to attack natural gas fieldsand pipelines.
(Reporting by Eduardo Garcia and Carlos Quiroga in La Pazand Denise Luna in Rio de Janeiro; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
