Police clashed with anti-government protesters Saturday in eastern Bolivia, with gunfire reportedly wounding four officers, as authorities attempted to clear a road blocked by rural workers demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz.
A month of heated demonstrations calling for the centre-right Paz to step down has paralysed the Andean nation, with about 100 protest blockades around Bolivia causing severe food and medicine shortages in major cities.
On Saturday, dozens of anti-riot police backed by military vehicles fired tear gas as they attempted to clear a road in the town of San Julian.
The town is in the Santa Cruz region, an agricultural breadbasket supplying food to the country’s western areas.
Protesters threw stones and burnt tyres to try to halt the police’s advance.
The Santa Cruz police chief, Colonel David Gomez, told local media that six officers were wounded during the clashes, including four by gunfire, prompting security forces to pull back.
An ombudsman’s office reported that at least 14 civilians were also injured.
Eventually the road was partially cleared, but protesters moved to block it again.
The chaos came a day after police and soldiers cleared a key road linking La Paz to farming communities.
The US-backed, pro-business Paz took office in November promising to resolve the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, but his unpopular economic reforms and failure to respond to social demands have roused public ire.
He has repeatedly called for dialogue with protesters but on Wednesday announced a bill to declare a state of emergency, which would authorise military deployment to crack down and clear the blockades.
Congress is debating the measure.
Supplies are low in La Paz and El Alto, as well as in Cochabamba, Oruro and Potosi.
The government accuses former socialist president Evo Morales, in hiding from charges related to his relationship with a teen with whom he allegedly fathered a child, of fomenting the unrest.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump’s new Shield of the Americas alliance, an anti-cartel coalition that includes pro-US administrations in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, among other countries, gave Paz its unequivocal backing.
