Six of Bolivia's nine provinces joined the 24-hour strike Tuesday, which was organized by civic leaders in Santa Cruz, Bolivia's largest city and the center of opposition to Mr. Morales.

Opposition leaders, mainly from the urban middle class, called the strike because they fear a drift toward dictatorship by Mr. Morales, a militant socialist elected in late 2005 on promises to nationalize industries and redistribute wealth to poor Indian peasants.

Since then, violence has swelled, illustrating Bolivia's stark divide between its poorer Indian population in the western highlands and the mestizo and European-descended people of its more populous and wealthier eastern plains.

However, the strike drew unusual support from Indians in the upland city of Sucre who once formed a solid base of support for Mr. Morales.

Mr. Morales this week brushed aside his opponents and began a campaign to have himself nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by calling Bolivia's ambassadors from all over the world to the capital, La Paz.

Mr. Morales, like some other recently elected in Latin America including Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, rails against the United States as an imperialist aggressor that is unwelcome in the region.

"The ambassador of the United States does not cooperate; he conspires," he told reporters after Monday's session with ambassadors.

The U.S. Embassy responded by saying its aid to Bolivian organizations is apolitical.

People of Sucre, the site of the constitutional convention as well as headquarters for Bolivia's judicial system, are angered over moves by Mr. Morales to shut down the country's high courts and block a campaign to have the capital move from La Paz to their city.

When the constitutional convention refused to take up the location of Bolivia's capital, protesters threw up street barricades across the assembly hall and ransacked houses of delegates.

A bigger issue is whether the Indians of Sucre will join forces with the middle class, even though they are angry at Mr. Morales for different reasons.

Hints of such an informal alliance surfaced during the strike.

"We back the democratic rights of the people of Sucre to have their just calls for capitality considered" said Branko Marinkovic, president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee.

As Mr. Marinkovic spoke, thousands of militants from the anti-Morales Santa Cruz Youth Union mounted vigilante patrols and road blockades to enforce the 24-hour strike by stopping all commerce and transportation.

"When has the Santa Cruz Civic Committee ever before cared about the capital?" asked Presidential Minister Juan Ramon Quintana, who charged that the"extreme right" was manipulating the issue.

Violence spilled over into the Bolivian Congress, where a fistfight broke out last week between Morales supporters and opponents.