10/17: After a 5th straight day of rioting and protests by more than 100,000 in Bolivia's capital, president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is expected to issue a statement of resignation late Friday afternoon. Sanchez de Lozada, a U.S. educated millionaire, saw his governing coalition shattered when the head of the centre-right New Republican Force party, Manfred Reyes Villa, withdrew from the government. The death toll from the month-long Bolivian uprising has risen to 74.
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10/16: At least 60 people have been killed in clashes with security forces in the recent riots and strikes in Bolivia. This large-scale revolt began in response to plans to export natural gas from Bolivia through Chile. Despite the governments backtracking on the plan, demonstrations have increased in ferocity, slowing down only to bury the dead.

The working class neighborhood of El Alto, 15 kilometers from the capital city of La Paz, has been the epicenter of the movement. Borrowing a tactic from working class resistance to capital in Argentina, demonstrators have blocked roads into La Paz. Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada responded by declaring martial law in El Alto on Oct. 12th. The weeks-old unrest is now general throughout the country, and is close to toppling the pro-US Sanchez de Lozada government. Live radio from Bolivia (bay area mirror) | Alternate server | Alternate server | Some background | Indymedia.org feature | Bolivia Unrest Rooted in Ongoing Poverty