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Bolivia descends into chaos after police join strikers
Government plans for a tax rise sparked a week of bloody riots in La Paz. Sandra Jordan reports as yet another South American nation implodes Sunday February 16, 2003 The Observer It has been a weekend of funerals in La Paz as thousands draped flowers over the coffins of nine policemen who were among at least 33 killed in vicious riots that spread across the Andean nation last week. Striking police officers returned to work on Friday, restoring a tentative calm, but fears persist that a 48-hour general strike beginning tomorrow will catapult the country back into chaos. The strike, organised by the Central Bolivian Workers' Union - the country's largest - is in protest against the government's economic policies and to demand the resignation of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. Nationwide blockades by independence-seeking indigenous people and coca farmers are also planned. Last week's violence was triggered when the 22,000 strong police force and other government employees mutinied against a salary tax, triggering two days of riots as troops were called in to restore order. Despite criticism of its handling of events, the government refused to take responsibility, denounc ing the riots as an attempted coup, the product of a 'conspiracy' against democracy. 'After a careful and lengthy evaluation, the clear conclusion is that in the final hours [someone] was managing a coup d'état against democracy,' said presidential spokesman Mauricio Antexana, without identifying any one group. The government later revealed that six shots had been fired into the president's office by unknown snipers. Desperate to avert further bloodshed, a government mission led by the Foreign Minister, Carlos Saavedra, flew to Washington to meet White House officials, the Treasury and multilateral banks to secure an aid package that might save Bolivia from economic implosion. Speaking before the Permanent Council at the Organisation of American States, Saavedra warned of dire consequences if the aid money did not come through. 'The situation is not complicated in Bolivia, it is dramatic,' he said. 'We fear that as of next week, on Monday or Tuesday... the conflict will begin in earnest.' Bolivia is the latest casualty of the meltdown that has swept across Latin America bringing economic collapse and civil disorder. Rioting was quelled on Friday when police returned to patrolling the streets of Bolivia's cities, amid cheers from frightened citizens. The toll has been high: 33 fatalities, hundreds of injured and £15 million of losses incurred through looting and destruction in South America's poorest nation. It is a disaster that has been long in the making. Successive governments have embraced economic reforms that have left Bolivians feeling poorer than ever. And a US-led war on drugs has forced Bolivia to eradicate 90 per cent of its coca, the raw material for cocaine, impoverishing coca farmers, mainly indigenous people, and causing unrest and ethnic tensions. The riots began as a protest against a government plan to raise income tax to 12.5 per cent in response to demands from the International Monetary Fund that Bolivia reduce its deficit from, 8.5 per cent of the budget to 5.5. Previously, the government depended on a value-added tax paid on goods and services. The system was subject to fraud by Bolivians who submitted fake invoices to get exemptions. The rioting only stopped when the president announced that the tax increase would not go ahead. Argentina's president, Eduardo Duhalde, directly accused the IMF of causing Bolivia's crisis, saying: 'It's the same as what happened here,' referring to Argentina's economic crash in 2001 that led to unprecedented impoverishment and sporadic violence that continues to date. 'The IMF wanted to reduce salaries,' said Duhalde, 'and the result is people in the street, brothers fighting each other, and a months-old government staggering.' It was the police themselves who sparked off the disorder. The revolt began on Tuesday night when officers refused to begin patrols and demanded a 40 per cent pay increase to offset the tax rise. On Wednesday, La Paz's 10,000 police went on strike, joining thousands of government employees who marched through the capital. Wages are low in Bolivia, where a policeman earns(£65) a month, and most people believe that they are too poor to cope with tax increases. Government employees, largely the only workers who have regular, taxable salaries, stormed the square outside the presidential palace and broke into government offices. Police looked on without taking action as students smashed windows. The carnage began in earnest after Sánchez de Lozada gave orders to send in the army, pitting the security forces against each other. Television footage showed soldiers firing at the police headquarters across the square after police officers fired tear gas at them. State buildings burnt through the night as firefight ers joined the police in their protest. The disorder spread across the nation. 'I've been a doctor here for 30 years and I've never seen such a bloody day,' said Eduardo Chávez, director of the capital's main public hospital. The president's future is in the balance but, despite increasing pressure to step down, he announced he would not resign. 'The solution is the resignation of the president,' said Indian leader and pro-coca politician Evo Morales, who ran against Sánchez de Lozada for the presidency last year. 'Democracy cannot govern with bullets.' |
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