The government of President Carlos Mesa has begun to lose what little control it had over the political and social situation in Bolivia. Monday, more than 5000 university students, who marched on foot almost a hundred kilometers, arrived in the city of La Paz, threatening to paralyze the urban center with marches and street blockades. [more (en/es)] Tuesday, more than 20,000 workers marched in La Paz in opposition to the privatization and export of gas, the key issue in last October's "gas war" uprising, which brought down the government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, now in exile in Miami, and left more than 79 people dead, nearly all of them at the hands of government forces. 5,000 more marched in Potosí, while in Santa Cruz labor leaders occupied the offices of transnational oil company Transredes. [report (es)] The Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) and other social forces across the country are promising to begin an indefinite general strike and road blockades on May 2[(es)] to bring down the government and its neoliberal policies and replace it with a Constituent Assembly [(es)]. Meanwhile, growing reports of a U.S.-Chile backed coup-in-the-making have been confirmed by both the popular sectors and (obliquely and defensively) the president himself.
Reports: CMI Bolivia | ZNet Bolivia Watch | clajadep-La Haine |