Three protesters were killed on Tuesday and 30 wounded in clashes with Bolivian security forces lifting an opposition blockade of fuel supplies to La Paz, the public ombudsman’s office reported.
Troops and police had moved to lift the siege on a fuel plant in El Alto by supporters of former Bolivian president Evo Morales that has caused acute shortages in nearby La Paz.
Two of the dead had been hit by gunfire, including a 31-year old man, a spokesman for the ombudsman’s office said.
Photo: AP
“We are asking the authorities for an investigation,” the spokesman said, adding that 30 people had been wounded, all of them Morales supporters.
“Agitators and vandals” had attacked and partially destroyed the Senkata fuel plant in El Alto, “using high-powered explosives,” the army said in a statement.
The deaths bring to 27 the number of people killed since unrest began in the wake of Oct. 20 elections, a tally by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights showed.
Morales condemned the deaths in a tweet from Mexico, which granted him political asylum after his Nov. 10 resignation.
“I denounce to the world that the de facto government in the style of military dictatorships is again killing my brothers in El Alto, who are peacefully resisting the coup and are fighting in the defense of life and democracy,” Morales wrote.
A convoy of about 50 fuel tankers was able to leave the Senkata plant for the first time in more than a week after police and military forces using armored vehicles secured the route to neighboring La Paz.
The convoy included tankers hauling gasoline, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas.
Morales supporters last week erected barricades around the El Alto plant to protest what they said was a coup by interim Bolivian President Jeanine Anez.
The blockade caused major fuel shortages in La Paz, the scene of daily protests against the new government. Public transport has largely been paralyzed by the shortages.
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