Clashes as acting Bolivia leader aims to end power vacuum

Bolivia's interim president Jeanine Anez moved Wednesday to fill the power vacuum left by the resignation of Evo Morales, who said he was ready to return from exile in Mexico to "pacify" the country, as riot police clashed with his supporters and one was killed.

Anez, a 52-year-old deputy senate speaker before proclaiming herself acting president on Tuesday -- a move endorsed by the Constitutional Court -- named 11 cabinet ministers and appointed a new military high command.

In a press conference at the presidential palace, she reiterated a pledge to "hold elections in the shortest possible time."
Rejecting Morales' claims that her presidency amounted to a coup, she said: "There is no coup in Bolivia. There is a constitutional replacement."
Morales called the "coup" against him "a political and economic conspiracy coming from the United States."