Clashes as Morales-allied protesters march on Bolivian capital

Bolivian security forces have clashed with followers of ex-President Evo Morales as they marched into the capital as part of a nationwide protest movement fuelled by the nation’s worst economic crisis in a generation.

After a six-day march through the Andes, thousands of Morales’s supporters, some brandishing dynamite sticks and slingshots, converged on the capital, La Paz, on Monday, where they were met by riot police.

Dynamite blasts rumbled downtown. Security forces fired back with canisters of tear gas that wafted over demonstrators who called for the president’s resignation just six months into his tenure. “Homeland or death, we will win!” they chanted.

Rallies and roadblocks that started over two weeks ago have become the biggest challenge so far to President Rodrigo Paz, Bolivia’s first conservative leader after nearly two decades of socialist governance, and have provoked shortages across the country.

Paz came to office last year as a wave of conservative leaders allied with the administration of President Donald Trump in the United States swept Latin America. Inheriting the nation’s most severe economic crisis in 40 years, Paz has struggled to replenish Bolivia’s scarce fuel, restrain its enormous budget deficit and resolve its shortage of US dollars, while also placating the powerful Morales-linked groups that could disrupt his presidency.

In recent days, his government has reached deals with striking miners and teachers, who agreed to end their protests. However, many groups continue to protest.

Road blockades have long been the main weapon of social movements allied with Morales that claim to represent Bolivia’s rural Indigenous majority. Over the past 16 days, these blockades have stranded thousands of trucks on key highways, triggering shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies in La Paz and other cities.

Flames rise from a cardboard box as miners clash with riot police during a protest demanding the resignation of Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, in La Paz [AFP]

The government deployed police and military officers across the country to try to break the blockades over the weekend, leading to an unspecified number of injuries and at least 90 arrests as of Monday, according to the public prosecutor.