john mage
Bolivian police lead violent protests <http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=249297>
Thursday, February 13, 2003 at 09:20 JST LA PAZ -- Striking police officers in the Bolivian capital led violent street demonstrations Wednesday that left at least 10 people dead and 53 injured in clashes between protesters and government troops.
Government troops fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition at the striking police officers and civilian demonstrators, who stormed the presidential palace to protest government proposals to raise taxes and cut spending on social programs.
As smoke from fires swirled through La Paz's historic center, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada gave a nationally televised speech appealing for calm and announcing he would suspend the tax increases.
"I plead with all Bolivians to put an end to the violence and to begin honest negotiations," Sanchez de Lozada said. "I ask one more thing from our father above -- God save Bolivia."
The director of the capital's main public hospital, Eduardo Chavez, confirmed that at least 10 people were killed. He said five of the dead were police officers who died from gunshot wounds.
There was no breakdown immediately available of how many of the at least 53 people injured were civilians, police or government troops. More injured and dead were expected, Chavez said.
"I've been a doctor here for 30 years and I've never seen such a bloody day," he said.
The mutiny began Tuesday night when officers in four precincts refused to begin patrols and demanded a 40% pay increase.
Officers in the capital are paid the equivalent of about $105 per month, a salary that would have been eroded by proposed income tax increases ranging from 7% to 13%.
By morning, nearly all police in La Paz and the surrounding area had left their posts despite talks with government officials to avert the strike.
Street protests began Monday after Sanchez de Lozada, struggling to lift Bolivia out of a five-year recession, approved tax hikes that would reduce the buying power of South America's poorest nation.
"The citizens here are full of fear," said Fernando Solis, a businessman who was trapped by the protests inside the Paris Hotel in the city's historic center.
Labor unions, business interests and others came out against the tax increases, but it was the police revolt that appeared to spark the violent street clashes with government troops.
Police officers, dressed in green fatigues, seized the foreign ministry, firing tear gas in support of the demonstrators who laid siege to the presidential palace across the square.
All shops were closed within at least 12 blocks of the historic center as smoke from tear gas and burning tires, wood and other debris filled the air.
"I'll continue fighting until the government is deposed," said Juan de Dios, a 17-year-old high school student who joined a mob attacking the presidential palace.
Television reports said human rights representatives were attempting to mediate between the police and the government.
"We're living a total chaos," said Sonia Rocha, a restaurant owner. "The government should really have thought before announcing these new taxes. We're just too poor to pay them."
Wilma Plata, head of La Paz's Teachers union, said some 20,000 public school teachers would join the police in a general protest Thursday.
"The government has created this crisis, and expects the nation's workers to shoulder the burden," she said. "The government is destroying us." (Compiled from wire reports)