BOLIVIA: Two dead after Bolivian protesters clash with police over new constitution

Record ID: 1519151

  • Title: BOLIVIA: Two dead after Bolivian protesters clash with police over new constitution
  • Date: 25th November 2007
  • Summary: WOMAN HOLDING TEAR GAS CANISTERS
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2007 09:26
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Police,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA67NZ196M6VWT7F2RSF50N53JI
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Protesters armed with clubs and stones clashed with police in southern Bolivia on Saturday (November 24) in demonstrations demanding the full relocation of the country's government to Sucre from La Paz.
    Police responded for a second day with tear gas and also fired rubber bullets to disperse thousands of demonstrators outside an assembly charged with crafting a new constitution.
    The protesters want Sucre to become Bolivia's "full capital,"
    with Congress and government offices shifted from the administrative capital, La Paz, a stronghold of leftist President Evo Morales.
    Nominally, Sucre is the South American country's capital, but it is home only to the top courts, while the legislature and the seat of government are in La Paz.
    Protests over the capital began in August, forcing the assembly, which sits in Sucre, to suspend debates for three months.
    At least two people were killed during Saturday's clashes and, according to state news agency ABI, 100 people were injured on Friday.
    The protests came amid a power struggle between Morales and his conservative rivals, who want more autonomy for the regions they govern and who also support the capital switch.
    Delegates have been meeting since Friday under heavy military guard in an army compound, vowing to speed up deliberations to produce a new constitution before their mandate expires on December 14.
    Mario Ona, an opposition delegate at the assembly, said they will disregard any new constitution.

    "We won't respect it because it's an illegal assembly. That assembly is managed by the people of the Altiplano," she said.
    "We should unite criteria to find a new constitution for the 10-million Bolivians, not just the Altiplano zone of Bolivia."

    "However long is necessary until the pressure calms down in the center of the city of Sucre. We can also return to Teatro Gran Mariscal but, if the conditions aren't right, we don't have to finish until December 14," said Delegate Dora Arteaga Alanoca of Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS.
    Delegates taking part in assembly sessions are mainly from Morales' party as most opposition representatives decided to boycott the debates.
    The rightist opposition on Saturday renewed its call for "civil disobedience" in the eastern regions they govern, where anti-government sentiment is strong, and vowed to disregard the new constitution.
    and have called for 'civil disobedience' against Morales' policies.
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