The US military is sending a small team of 'security specialists' Bolivia as the recent civil unrest in the south American looks set to worsen.
The subcontinent's poorest country was hit with further political upheaval today when the coalition government fell apart after a main ally of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada withdrew his support, echoing demands from protesters for the unpopular leader to step down.
The capital, La Paz, has been almost totally shut down with schools, banks, shops, and restaurants all closed. And Public transport has come to a standstill.
An estimated 74 people have died in fighting in the past week.
There have been mounting protests against the unpopular leader, with tens of thousands of miners and farmers calling on him to quit.
He is regarded as a US puppet maintaining free-market economic policies, which have failed to improve living standards.
The situation is complicated by the ethnic division between city-based Spanish descendants who control the poor indigenous people who live in the countryside.
The decision by Manfred Reyes Villa, head of the center-right New Republican Force party, to quit the coalition deprived President Sanchez de Lozada of the two-thirds majority needed to pass most legislation in the Bolivian Congress.
Analysts now see little chance that he will be able to survive in office.
Additional reporting Agencies>/b>