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Anti government protests sweep major bolivian cities Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Anti-government protests sweep major Bolivian cities amid calls for president to resign
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Oct. 15 — Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched Wednesday in major cities around Bolivia to call on the president to resign, as popular resistance to the government spread in South America's poorest country.
In La Paz, the epicenter of the latest round of deadly rioting that began over the weekend, soldiers took up positions to assert control amid continuing turmoil by demonstrators who have paralyzed the city with blockades.
Thousands of people, meanwhile, crowded the downtown plaza in Cochabamba, in southeastern Bolivia, in the latest phase of a three-week-old popular outpouring against President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
''Viva Bolivia!'' demonstrators shouted noisily in Cochabamba as they vowed to wage an indefinite work stoppage.
Many voiced angry opposition to the president's plan, since suspended, to export natural gas from southern Bolivia's underground reserves to the United States and Mexico — a project critics claim would only benefit the wealthy.
A 27-year-old unemployed worker, Victor Raiz, watched protests Wednesday and said he thought the only sure solution was for the president to resign.
''The people are no longer with him,'' Raiz said.
Elsewhere, about 1,000 miners were marching toward La Paz to join demonstrations by thousands of poor Indians, union workers, and street vendors.
Reports by independent Radio Erbol and private broadcaster TV 21 said the miners clashed with government troops in the city of Patacamaya, about 60 miles west of La Paz. Those reports indicated troops fired tear gas and miners responded by hurling dynamite.
Human rights groups and local media have reported up to 63 deaths in three weeks of street clashes between mostly Indian demonstrators and troops. The authorities have reported at least 16 deaths, but have not confirmed the higher figure.
Protests spread to the western city of Oruro and the southern city of Sucre, once the country's colonial capital. Thousands of peasants moved to blockade the four major highways leading into Sucre.
Outside La Paz, some 1,000 coca-growing farmers from the northern region of Los Yungas descended on the capital to join the protesters, who include labor unions, students, community groups and other government opponents.
Bolivia's poor Indian majority has grown increasingly disenchantment with free market reforms and U.S.-backed plans to eradicate coca, the plant that is the raw material for cocaine but is also chewed to stave off hunger and as a natural stimulant in the Andean mountain nation.
The capital, emptied of traffic Wednesday, took on the appearance of a ghost town. Schools, shops, banks and businesses closed. Protesters manned barricades of burning debris on major highways, shutting down La Paz and the capital's sister city of El Alto.
The protests began in mid-September in angry opposition to Sanchez de Lozada's plan to export natural gas to the United States and Mexico to raise badly needed export revenue.
The move ignited long-simmering discontent against his democratically elected 14-month-old government.
Although the president announced Monday he was shelving the plan, he has vowed not to resign — despite pledges by demonstrators to continue their protests until he leaves office.
Pressure against Sanchez de Lozada has also arisen from within his ruling coalition government.
Manfred Reyes Villa, a key member of the governing coalition, said he urged Sanchez de Lozada to call a referendum on the gas export plan and a legislative assembly ''to help calm the country.''
But Evo Morales, the most powerful Indian opposition leader, said the president had to step down to avoid further conflict.
Opponents to the gas plan objected to the use of neighboring Chile as the main port of export and argued the $5 billion project would only benefit the country's wealthy.
A U.S.-educated millionaire, Sanchez de Lozada served as president from 1993 to 1997. Now 73, he took office for a second term in August 2002 after narrowly defeating Morales, a radical congressman. He has the backing of the U.S. government.
© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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