Striking Bolivian police exchanged gunfire with soldiers, leaving 17 people
dead and 100 wounded, during protests over a tax rise that forced the
president to flee his palace hidden in an ambulance.
A woman passes troops in La Paz during protests over a tax rise "Police and
people united will never be beaten," protesters shouted as they confronted
heavily armed soldiers outside the palace.
The demonstration started when the centre-Right President Gonzalo Sanchez
de Lozada announced a rise in taxes, expecting popular discontent but
nothing the police could not handle. The police, faced with the prospect of
losing more of their �70 monthly wages, joined protesters in the streets.
With no officers to protect the presidential palace Mr Sanchez called up
the troops. They took up positions in the capital, La Paz, and confronted
7,000 demonstrators, many of them police, in Plaza Murillo, the city's
central square.
Soldiers opened fire on the crowd and the police responded in kind. A
running battle broke out on the plaza, with army marksmen shooting from the
roofs of the presidential palace and the neighbouring cathedral.
Police fired tear-gas at the troops and as protesters laid siege to the
presidential palace Mr Sanchez escaped. As darkness fell eight policemen
lay dead, many shot in the head, most likely by army snipers, while two
soldiers were killed and 13 wounded.
The seven other dead were civilians. The president later appeared on
national television announcing the suspension of the tax rise and the
withdrawal of troops.
But with no police or army to provide security, looters went on the
rampage, storming a brewery and setting seven official buildings on fire,
including the vice-president's office and the governing party headquarters.
The historic building of the Works Ministry was put to the torch and the
nation's labour records destroyed.
Hospital workers had to form human chains to prevent people flooding the
emergency rooms to find out about loved ones. Doctors ran out of blood and
antibiotics to treat the wounded. "All of them are coming in with gunshot
wounds," said Eduardo Chavez, the director of Hospital de Clinicas.
In the early hours yesterday the government and the police worked out a
deal to stop the fighting. The president agreed to pay �6,200 to the
families of every policeman killed and an unspecified bonus to 15,000 other
officers.
Meanwhile, coca growers, who have been holding protests for several weeks,
stepped up their demonstrations yesterday. One was shot dead by troops and
three were wounded as they put up barricades on a main road 370 miles from
the capital.
They are protesting against the American-sponsored eradication of coca,
which indigenous people use as part of their culture and to fight altitude
sickness. Because coca is the basis of cocaine Washington has pressured the
Bolivian government to destroy all coca crops except registered fields
which supply legal demand.
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/02/13/8366874
