Lawmakers appealed for compromise in deeply polarized Bolivia, after opponents of President Evo Morales stayed home from work and blocked key thoroughfares in four cities to protest his party's handling of an assembly rewriting the country's Constitution.
"We're headed -- both parties, the opposition and the government -- to extreme positions," said Jose Ona, a congressman from the conservative party Podemos, on Friday. "We have to try to create a dialogue and arrive at the type of conversations that can avoid these conflicts."
Throughout the day, national television broadcast images of scattered street fights between conservative strikers and Morales supporters.
Conservative leaders called the one-day work stoppage to protest efforts by Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS) to assert absolute control over the Constituent Assembly, which convened last month to draw up a new charter for South America's poorest country.
Morales, elected last December as Bolivia's first Indian president, envisions a new constitution that will undo the centuries-old dominance of the European-descended elite and create more opportunities for the country's poor Indian majority.
Opponents argue the MAS is trying to expand the president's power without recognizing the demand by four wealthier eastern states for greater autonomy from the federal government.
Ruben Costas, governor of the state of Santa Cruz, an opposition stronghold whose capital was the center of Friday's strike, said the protest represented "a new hope in the east."
"We are fighting for democracy, for rule of law, for the unity of the country," Costas told demonstrators on Friday. "Santa Cruz has taken a central role in this country to save those principles."
Strike leaders had hoped to paralyze the entire states of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando -- home to a third of Bolivia's 9 million inhabitants -- but the protest on Friday was largely limited to the states' four capital cities.
Government Minister Alicia Munoz called the strike a "resounding failure," and the Morales administration released a statement blaming "regionalist oligarchies" for calling a strike "that a large part of the states involved reject."
Morales stayed out of public view on Friday, canceling a scheduled appearance at the graduation ceremony of a Cuban-sponsored adult literacy program in La Paz.
In Santa Cruz -- Bolivia's largest city -- residents took to the streets chanting "Autonomy!" and waving the state's green-and-white flag.
MAS supporters turned out as well, and the two groups clashed in the city's poor Plan 3,000 neighborhood. Police dispersed the crowds with tear gas.
While strike leaders claimed to have halted 50 percent of Bolivia's economy on Friday, analysts said the true figure was likely much lower.
"The real question is whether or not this will have a political impact," said Horst Grebe, a former economic development minister.
Constitutional delegates on Friday returned to the negotiating table to hash out the body's rules of order, which have yet to be decided despite a month of heated talks and occasional shoving matches on the assembly floor.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was