Bolivia: Bolivia's army fought to stop columns of protesters from streaming into the food-starved capital yesterday as a popular uprising against the president spread.
Catholic Church officials reported that two miners were killed and six other protesters injured 110 kms outside La Paz. Protests also raged in the eastern city of Cochabamba, where marchers threw rocks at police and Molotov cocktails at a government palace.
Analysts predict President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, whose coalition is crumbling, will have to make concessions to protesters to prevent more violence from toppling his administration. The month long revolt against his US-backed policies have left at least 53 people dead, not including the miners, whose deaths have not been confirmed by authorities.
The government in South America's poorest nation, where six out of 10 people live on less than $2 a day, is under attack for a host of grievances ranging from its US-led eradication of coca to a plan to export natural gas to the United States.
Workers, farmers and miners streamed towards the high-altitude capital, and students and school teachers were also planning to hold rallies.
There were sporadic clashes as police fired tear gas at demonstrators in the morning.
The city is nearly cut off from supplies of fuel and basic foodstuffs like bread and eggs. Banks and schools are shut and Indian markets sell only rotting vegetables. Congress has closed its doors, airlines cannot land at the one international airport and tourists are trapped.
After one small convoy of gas canisters arrived in La Paz, an Indian woman dragged a canister from soldiers guarding the truck. Another in the line screamed "I need to feed my five children!" Some had waited 24 hours in line.
Thousands of Bolivians in the poor outskirts set up barricades of tires and stones along key access routes to the capital. They stone anyone who tries to drive past.
"I've stayed indoors for three days. I ventured out only once to try and eat. I'm living on old packets of Pringles. My girlfriend is screaming at me for bread," said Thomas Lerche, a 32-year-old Danish biology student trapped in La Paz.
Some of President Lozada's coalition partners want him to hold a referendum on his plans to sell natural gas to the United States, a move that may soothe government opposition.
Criticism of the gas project through Chile is one of the rallying cries of the Indian-led opposition for him to resign.