Morales aides took pains to explain away the anomaly of giving various shades of autonomy to Bolivia's native communities and then having to explain the kinks in a well-meant project.

The bottom line that emerged after the latest events was that four police men died in two separate lynching incidents and a fifth man was killed in a ritual "native justice" killing.

Indigenous leaders explained the lynching was part of their tradition and no apologies -- let alone legal processes -- were due.

The empowerment of the indigenous communities, enshrined in the 2009 constitution, gained momentum after the government rushed new legislation through a Congress emptied of boycotting dissenters.

The gesture was meant to be a nod to indigenous traditions -- not quite self-determination nor self-rule -- but as the killings surfaced Morales found himself under fire for letting what critics called a bad thing get even worse.

Seen by Western observers as an eccentric dreamer and a maverick -- epithets that rile the revolutionary ruler -- Morales has set himself the task of recasting Bolivia into an authentic paragon of socialism. He remains popular and confident enough to dismiss all criticism as irrelevant.

Morales is Latin America's first self-proclaimed elected indigenous president. There were others, all dictators or military puppets, but what sets Bolivia apart is its crushing poverty and failure of successive administration to deploy key resources such as gold, hydrocarbons and tin to the betterment of the economy. Bolivia still ranks as Latin America's poorest country.

Critics said that empowering the impoverished masses wouldn't ease Bolivia's economic burden.

Ruling party Congresswoman Cecilia Ayllon admitted "native justice" was being misinterpreted and misused for political gain.

Further complications arose because Congress has yet to agree on how "native justice" can work with "ordinary justice."

News that members of the native justice supreme tribunal would be picked using tribal criteria and not merit caused more disquiet in the opposition as well as members of the ruling party. However, after the controversial passage through the lower house, legislation is headed for the Senate, where Morales has a comfortable two-thirds majority.

An accused killer became the latest victim of "native justice" in the southwestern province of Potosi, after the earlier lynching of four policemen. Clansmen accused the police men of various excesses, tortured and then killed them.

Community leaders turned over the bodies of the four lynched men but only after the victims' families signed a pledge not to seek criminal charges against the killers.

The families this week changed their position and began legal action against the Indian communities and promised to implicate government officials and police commanders for dereliction of duty.

Some officials have changed tack and are trying to persuade indigenous leaders to respect Bolivia's constitutional ban on capital punishment.

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