Bolivia Amidst Repression and Riots

Bolivian police fires upon demonstrators

Students of Universidad de El Alto, Bolivia; tried to take their protest before the Government Palace in the capital, La Paz. However a police operative was waiting for them by orders of Bolivian president Evo Morales.

It is still not clear how the incidents started, but the press reports point out that both sides confronted each other for several minutes. The demonstrators used rocks and firecrackers while the security forces immediately fired gases.

So far there are a dozens of wounded in both sides due to the confrontations. Meanwhile Jorge Perez, the Deputy minister of Internal Affairs and Government, believes there are some infiltrated people that started the riots in order to destabilize the government.

This mobilization of people started the first announced strike of the central union of workers. These demonstrations have the support of students, doctors and other sectors that are not happy with the economic measures of Morales government.

The Central of Bolivian Workers (COB for its Spanish acronym) rejected the salary increase of 8% to nullify the new disposition, which increases their labour time from 6 to 8 hours. (AV)