Several spectators in the gallery and lawmakers shouted "Goni! Assassin!" using the president's nickname, in reference to as many as 65 deaths reported by human-rights groups from days of rioting.
The protests, which came 14 months into Sanchez de Lozada's second term, were sparked by the controversial plans to export gas through neighboring Chile.
The proposal tapped deep disappointment with Bolivia's decade-old free-market experiment, which has failed to narrow the enormous gap between rich and poor in this impoverished country.
The proposal also underscored spreading popular distrust with the government's US-backed policies against the growing of coca, the source of cocaine. The crackdown has deprived thousands of poor Indian farmers of their livelihood and plunged the president's popularity ratings into the single digits.
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