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World






Posted on Thu, Feb. 13, 2003
Calls grow for Bolivian president's resignation amid riots

Knight Ridder Newspapers

Tanks formed an iron curtain in front of Bolivia's presidential palace Thursday as a second day of violent protests swept the Andean nation and calls grew for President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to resign.

The death toll climbed to at least 20 on Thursday as scattered violence and looting continued across the country. A clash between police and soldiers, who have feuded for decades, sparked the clash, which was joined by citizens angry over an unpopular income tax.

On Thursday, authorities met union-led anti-government demonstrations in the capital city of La Paz with bullets and tear gas. Bolivian media reports said at least two looters were shot to death and 12 others were injured, some gravely.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer responded with a prepared statement, saying President Bush was "deeply concerned" about violence in Bolivia and reaffirming the administration's "strong support" for Sanchez de Lozada and his government.

Sanchez de Lozada, 72, known by his nickname, Goni, said through his spokesman and cabinet chief that he would not resign.

Unions, indigenous groups and political opponents Thursday launched what they promised would be nationwide highway blockages and other protests aimed at toppling the pro-U.S. government that took office in August.

Leading the opposition effort is Evo Morales, who came close to winning the presidency last year and whose Movement to Socialism Party now controls about a third of Bolivia's congress.

Morales champions poor, mostly indigenous farmers who grow coca, the plant from which cocaine is made. In a heated address to demonstrators in La Paz's Plaza de San Francisco on Thursday, Morales called for civil unrest.

"We will not allow these deaths to go unpunished. ... We seek the resignation of the president of the republic," Morales told thousands of cheering followers.

Morales' supporters and government opponents then tried to storm the Plaza Murillo in front of the presidential palace, but soldiers repelled them. On Wednesday, students stoned the presidential palace while police, who were on strike, stood by and did nothing. Soldiers then fired on students and police. Police stayed out of the fray on Thursday after the government agreed to raise their pay.

Bolivian media reports said Thursday the rioting and looting had the appearance of being staged. At least one foreign bank was attacked, and the ministry for sustainable development was set afire. That low-profile ministry works with the U.S. Agency for International Development to create alternative crops to coca in central and southern Bolivia.

Morales supports Bolivians who want an end to forced eradication of coca in the Chapare, a New Jersey-sized swath of tropical Bolivia where coca is not native but was brought in by drug traffickers for cultivation. Campaigning for president last year, Morales promised to eject the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from Bolivia if elected and to allow coca to be grown freely. Bolivia's crackdown on illicit coca is believed to have taken more than $200 million annually out of the economy of South America's poorest nation.

Bolivia has been racked with sporadic violent protests for several years, as the poor majority grows increasingly frustrated with an open economy that has brought them few new opportunities. Forced eradication of coca takes away one of the few cash crops for farmers.

The tax that drove people onto the streets, and was withdrawn by the president in a bid for calm, affected anyone who made two times more than the monthly minimum wage of $58.

The U.S. Embassy in La Paz, as of much of Bolivia's capital, was closed Thursday. U.S. Marines guarded against possible attacks. Embassy officials confirmed reports that marchers threatened to attack the fortified building but apparently dispersed without incident.

The vice president's office was also attacked and set ablaze during the Wednesday rioting. It houses the national archive, and documents dating back to the arrival of Spanish conquistadors are feared lost.

Firefighters were still trying to put out the fire late Thursday.

(Bolivar reported from La Paz, Hall from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.)

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