Up to 8 (16?) Dead as Bolivian Troops Quell Protests

[DUreader]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20031012/wl_nm/bolivia_protests_dc




LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Up to eight
protesters were reported killed on Sunday after Bolivia's
government sent thousands of troops backed by tanks to quell
increasingly violent protests against President Gonzalo Sanchez
de Lozada.

Witnesses told local radio eight
protesters were killed during pitched
battles with troops clearing roadblocks
choking food and gasoline supplies to the
capital in and around the poor industrial
suburb of El Alto, outside La Paz.

The government, which has played down
death tolls in recent protests, said four civilians and one soldier
were killed and that around 30 others were injured.

Sunday's clashes raise the toll to 19 dead and dozens injured
during a month-long wave of protests against Sanchez de
Lozada's free market policies and failure to tackle crushing
poverty in South America's poorest nation.



http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20031012/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/bolivia_gas_protests




LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia's government imposed martial law on a city outside
the capital Sunday after clashes between troops and demonstrators angry
about proposals to export gas to the United States and Mexico. Sixteen
people have been reported killed.

Soldiers manned major intersections in
El Alto, a poor, industrial city 10 miles
outside the capital, La Paz. But the move
didn't stop protesters who repeatedly
clashed with the soldiers and police
trying to disperse them.

Roman Catholic priest Asensio Mamani said he saw three
people killed in the clashes in his neighborhood, Senakata, on
Sunday. Another priest, Modesto Chino, said two demonstrators
were also killed in the Ballivian neighborhood.

Those deaths would bring the total killed to 16 in El Alto since the
clashes began. The government earlier reported that 11 people
had been killed.

[La_Serpiente]

1. Oh no

I hope we don't see the emergence of a Banana Republican again in Latin America.

It is interesting because Sr. Sanchez de Lozada has the respect and support of the American government. It must be the Cocaleros who are pissed off at him because he is ignoring them.

The PBS series Commanding Heights did a profile of Bolivia in its recent times.

Here's the link:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/shared/minitextlo/int_gonzalodelozada.html

However, I have to give him credit for getting rid of the hyperinflation there. But it really wasn't his doing. It was the result of the Harvard trained economist Jeffrey Sachs.

[DUreader]

2. CBC is Going with AP's 16 also

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/031012/w101274.html


Presidential spokesman Mauricio Antezana accused
demonstrators of trying to overthrow the government, an
allegation the administration has made previously.

Antezana said the military decided to lock down El Alto
after soldiers trying to restore order Saturday night
were attacked with firearms and rocks by the
demonstrators.

He said martial law was necessary "to ensure the safety
of its citizens and protect public and private
properties."