Summary
Looting and roadblocks convulsed Bolivia Monday after President Evo Morales' resignation ended 14 years of socialist rule and left a power vacuum his opponents scrambled to fill.
Morales' exact whereabouts were unknown, though it was thought he had flown in the presidential plane to his stronghold of Chapare province, where he rose to prominence as a union leader.
Morales said he stepped down to ease the violence, but repeated Monday accusations he was the victim of a conspiracy by political enemies including election rival Carlos Mesa and protest leader Luis Fernando Camacho.
Argentine President-elect Alberto Fernandez echoed Morales' denunciations of a coup, as did Mexico which has offered him asylum.
Amid the chaos, prominent Bolivian opposition figure and academic Waldo Albarracin tweeted that his house had been set on fire by Morales supporters.
The Organization of American States, which had denounced "manipulations" of the October vote Sunday prior to the military's withdrawal of support for Morales, exhorted Bolivian lawmakers to meet urgently to resolve the crisis.
Parliament took formal receipt of Morales' resignation letter Monday.
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