Bolivia’s political crisis turned deadly after security forces opened fire on supporters of former Bolivian president Evo Morales in a central town, killing at least five people, injuring dozens and threatening the interim government’s efforts to restore stability.
Most of the dead and injured in Sacaba, near the city of Cochabamba, sustained bullet wounds, Guadalberto Lara, director of the town’s Mexico Hospital, told reporters.
He called it the worst violence he had seen in his 30-year career.
Photo: EPA
Angry demonstrators and relatives of those killed gathered at the site of the shootings, chanting: “Civil war, now!”
Morales, who was granted asylum in Mexico after his resignation on Sunday last week, said on Twitter that a “massacre” had occurred and he described the government led by Bolivian President Jeanine Anez as a dictatorship.
“Now they are killing our brothers in Sacaba, Cochabamba,” he said in another tweet.
Protesters said police fired when demonstrators, including many coca leaf growers who backed Bolivia’s first indigenous president, tried to cross a military checkpoint.
Emeterio Colque Sanchez, a 23-year-old university student, said he saw the dead bodies of several protesters and about two-dozen people rushed to hospitals, many covered in blood.
Earlier in the day, Anez said Morales would face possible legal charges for election fraud if he returns home from Mexico City, even as the ousted leader contended that he is still president, as the Bolivian legislature has not yet approved his resignation.
Bolivia’s interim leader also said Morales would not be allowed to participate in new presidential elections meant to heal the nation’s political standoff.
Morales stepped down following nationwide protests over suspected vote-rigging in an Oct. 20 election in which he claimed to have won a fourth term in office.
An Organization of American States audit of the vote found widespread irregularities.
Morales has denied there was fraud.
Families of those killed held a candlelight vigil late on Friday in Sacaba.
A tearful woman put her hand on a wooden casket surrounded by flowers and asked: “Is this what you call democracy? Killing us like nothing?”
Another woman cried over the coffin of Omar Calle, which was draped in the Bolivian national flag and the multicolor “Wiphala” flag that represents indigenous people.
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