Pubdate: Mon, 10 Apr 2000
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2000 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4066
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
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ECONOMIC PROTESTS DISRUPT BOLIVIA

Cocaine Crackdown, Water Rates Denounced

LA PAZ, Bolivia Police walked off the job in the country's two largest
cities, and Indian farmers massed outside the third-largest city Sunday,
protesting, among other things, the government's destruction of the
once-thriving cocaine industry and high water prices.

By late afternoon, most of the tension was limited to the central city of
Cochabamba, where the wave of anti-government demonstrations began a week
ago.

Thousands of farmers angry over the government's handling of Bolivia's
economic slump gathered on the outskirts of Cochabamba. Thousands more
rallied in the main square.

A commission headed by Vice President Jorge Quiroga was sent to Cochabamba
to negotiate an end to the conflict that has paralyzed it for a week, said
government spokesman Ronnie MacLean.

The other hot spot was the Andean foothill town of Achacachi, in the west,
where five people were killed in clashes between Indian farmers and soldiers
who tried to remove their roadblocks.

Two farmers, two soldiers and a police officer were killed Sunday, said
MacLean. Overall, eight people died in weekend political violence.

Hundred of police Sunday in the capital of La Paz and in Santa Cruz, the
country's second-largest city, took over their own headquarters and jails,
demanding a 50 percent increase in pay. The strike turned violent in La Paz,
with police firing tear gas at soldiers, who fired their rifles into the
air.

In both cities the strikes were over in hours, with the police winning their
wage increases.

No violence was reported in Santa Cruz, but the army was called in to
control the streets of that eastern city. The streets in Cochabamba were
quiet Sunday morning after a day of tear gas, rubber bullets and the
government suspending many constitutional guarantees. But by early
afternoon, thousands of protesters had gathered in and outside the city.

The unexpected surge in anti-government action reflects Bolivians' disgust
over rising water rates, unemployment and other economic difficulties. The
economic crisis was attributed in part to the government's war on cocaine
trafficking.

The destruction of more than half the country's coca leaf production has
left thousands of Quechua and Aymara Indian farmers without a livelihood and
depressed the economy in regions where cocaine trafficking once thrived.
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