BOLIVIA: Five disabled protesters go on hunger strike a day after clashes with police over their demand for higher monthly stipends

Record ID: 340654

  • Title: BOLIVIA: Five disabled protesters go on hunger strike a day after clashes with police over their demand for higher monthly stipends
  • Date: 25th February 2012
  • Summary: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (FEBRUARY 24, 2012) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF EMPTY SQUARE OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT PALACE VARIOUS OF POLICE BLOCKING ADVANCE OF HANDICAPPED PROTESTERS ON GOVERNMENT PALACE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) LUIS FELIPE LEIGUE, LEADER OF HANDICAPPED PROTESTERS, SAYING: "We aren't asking for any favours from the government. We are asking for what rightly belongs to us. We a
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Bolivia, Plurinational State Of
  • Country: Bolivia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3X4PQPWMK3A9I4NG8T1XCQUYK
  • Story Text: Five disabled protesters went on a hunger strike on Friday (February 24) in La Paz, Bolivia a day after they clashed with police trying to prevent them from reaching the government palace.
    Some one thousand disabled Bolivians tried to march on La Paz's Murillo square on Thursday to demand a higher monthly stipend.
    A cordon of female police officers stopped the marchers and scuffles broke out. Some demonstrators stripped down and pleaded with police to let them reach the government palace to talk with legislators.
    The marchers, the majority of whom receive 1000 bolivianos ($145) a month, are demanding the 4800 bolivianos ($695) monthly stipend the government gives to the blind.
    Protest leader Luis Felipe Leigue is one of the leaders of the disabled group, which number 46,000 across the country.
    "We aren't asking for any favours from the government. We are asking for what rightly belongs to us. We are asking them to approve the law that we drafted and they are not doing it. We want to make it to Murillo square, a place that belongs to all Bolivians, and they won't let us," he said.
    Now the protesters are holding vigil near Murillo square and five of them are on a hunger strike.
    The protesters, many of them in wheelchairs and on crutches, began marching November 15 in the eastern city of Trinidad and have covered some 1750 kilometres (1087 miles).
    "When we were making our claim after a 100-day march. They were here waiting for us to repress us, to beat us, to take away our relatives who have helped us. They are taking us away like criminals," Leigue added.
    One of the demonstrators, Mariela Higueras, said the government is coming up short on work programs for the handicapped as well/
    "They don't give us work either. People see us in wheelchairs and they think we are useless. At least this stipend will help us live with dignity. It's not much, but it will help us live," she said.
    The protesters also claim that President Evo Morales has failed to comply with a 2006 law that diverted funds from political parties and citizen organizations to the disabled.
    The law reportedly re-routed some six million dollars annually to the disabled but the money never made it to them.
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