Protests turn bloody

La Paz

Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada declared martial law this week in El Alto, a suburb of La Paz, after riots erupted over a plan to export natural gas to the U.S. and Mexico. More than 40 people were killed, many in clashes with soldiers. The exports would generate $1.5 billion annually for Bolivia, South America’s poorest nation. Some object because the pipeline would end at a port in Chile, Bolivia’s neighbor and rival, while others say the gas should be used to power industry and create jobs at home. Politicians criticized the president for using force to quell the demonstrations, and protesters from unions and Indian peasant groups called for him to resign. Sanchez de Lozada has now put the pipeline project on hold, but said, “I’m not going anywhere.”