A rchive Date
[ 14-10-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Bolivia ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/10/13/225158-ap.html
Bolivian leader cancels plan to export gas
By CARLOS VALDES
Mon, October 13, 2003
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Thousands of Bolivians took to the streets Monday, chanting anti-government slogans despite an announcement by the country's president that he will shelve controversial plans for natural gas exports.
The plans to sell gas to the United States and Mexico had already provoked massive protests in recent days in which at least 16 people have been killed. Twelve more people were killed Monday in La Paz, according to news broadcasts. However, the government did not report any new casualties.
Meanwhile, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's decision to abandon the project was followed by criticism from his own vice-president, demands that he resign, large demonstrations and a public transportation strike that virtually paralysed La Paz on Monday. Shops and banks also closed as residents opted to stay home to avoid the violence.
"I cannot continue to support the situation we are living," Vice-President Carlos Mesa said, urging the president to change his policies. However, Mesa said he will not resign.
Development Minister Jorge Torres, however, did step down citing "insurmountable differences" with the president. The U.S. government supported the president with a strong statement urging calm in Bolivia.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States and other countries "will not tolerate any interruption of constitutional order and will not support any regime that results from undemocratic means."
The embattled president addressed the nation on radio and television after meeting with top advisers and military leaders, amid indications that his three-year old government was weakening.
Sanchez de Lozada vowed "to defeat the sedition and restore order," and called the massive protests, "a plot encouraged from abroad aimed at destroying Bolivia and staining our democracy with blood." He did not elaborate.
As the president spoke, marches and sporadic clashes continued in La Paz. The marches began peacefully but clashes broke when soldiers turned away demonstrators from the plaza, where the presidential palace is located.
Clashes were also reported elsewhere in the city. Witnesses told radio and TV stations that at least six people died Monday in La Paz.
"They are mourning a man in the soccer field," a weeping woman in La Paz's Ovejuyo working class district told Radio Fides.
In the nearby Rio Seco neighbourhood, protesters set fire to a gas tank, killing a female bystander, witnesses said.
The government, however, did not confirm any deaths Monday.
Witnesses said demonstrators threw rocks at the residence of former president Jaime Paz Zamora, a close associate to Sanchez de Lozada. No one was injured and Paz was not at the house at the time. The presidential palace, meanwhile, was under heavy military guard and four tanks were parked nearby.
Radio stations were urging soldiers and police to use restraint.
"Do not shoot. Let's stop the killing among Bolivians," the announcers repeated.
Protesters were reportedly blocking roads in several areas.
During weekend protests in El Alto, a city of 750,000 people next to La Paz, soldiers killed at least five demonstrators, according to witnesses. The government declared martial law, sending soldiers with automatic weapons to patrol the streets.
Residents and human rights groups say the number of victims is probably close to 20.
The government had estimated that revenues from the gas exports would bring about $2 billion Cdn a year to Bolivia, South America's poorest country.
But union leaders and the poor Indian majority argue the economic benefits won't reach them.
The president told an early morning news conference that he will promote a national dialogue on the issue until the end of the year, and in the meantime, "there will be no gas exports to new markets."
Protest leaders said that's not enough.
"The only political solution to this crisis is the resignation of the president of the republic," congressman Evo Morales, a protest leader, said, adding that "what the Bolivian people want is that the gas remain in Bolivia, for the benefit of Bolivians."
The president said his government "is the result of a popular election," and has the support of the armed forces and the police. Sanchez de Lozada, a millionaire businessman who grew up in the United States, was elected in 2002 to a five-year term.
Sanchez de Lozada offered to negotiate with protest leaders, but organizers rejected the offer.
In Washington, the Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria condemned the violence and warned that "any government that arises anti-democratically is absolutely unacceptable in the Americas."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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