The Santa Cruz issue is being fueled up (it seems) by local "empresarios cruceños" and "autoridades civicas". Mesa is using a classic political strtegy asserting that all turmoils in Santa Cruz are sponsored by Sanchez de Lozada and their followers (probably some empresarios and civicos did support Sanchez de Lozada)in an effort to de-legitimate all protests. Cruceños are really interested in autonomy and they think that's best for them (never heard of them some good arguments or results for the country as a whole).

What is really interesting is that Santa Cruz is always nagging about centralization, but everybody that has been there can testify that the region is also very centralized itself; only the city of Santa Cruz has good infrastucture (and only 'til the 5th ring, periurban Santa Cruz lacks basic services) no need to mention what happens in smaller cities.

Finally they ought to consider that:
-For a long time (specially the 70s) Santa Cruz development was financed by the mining industry of Oruro y Potosi.
-"We" have a large international debt, I'd like to know how we split it.
- They'll have to create executive branchs and nowadays without them they're having a lot of trouble.
- There are a lot of inmigrant residents from the east that for sure don't like the idea but are still silent to see how things turn out.
- Commerce might be hampered and, wether or not they don´t like it, a lot of investment in Bolivia comes from the east or Andean Region (even Peruvian investors).
-An irresponsible autonomic demand might fragment the weakened political union that we still have.

Above some points to consider.