Daniel Stewart - Yesterday
Bolivia's Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, on Wednesday accused the leaders of the Departmental Association of Coca Producers (Adepcoca) of hiring rioters to confront the police, who in the last day arrested about twenty people during the protests.
Protests against the government of Jeanine Áñez
(file image). - CHRISTIAN LOMBARDI / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO
Del Castillo has assured that "the great majority" of those who attended the last mobilizations do not belong to the coca leaf producers' sector, which is being "stigmatized" because of those "bad leaders who are hiring people from other places" to generate "terror and anxiety".
"This type of illegal acts will not be tolerated, wherever they come from", remarked Del Castillo, who accused the rioters of using weapons and homemade explosives against the agents, according to the Bolivian newspaper 'La Razón'.
"We have seen how a person was almost decapitated by a barbed wire placed by radicalized sectors and during the night a policewoman was kidnapped and beaten", denounced Del Castillo, who once again asked the parties in conflict to sit down to negotiate.
This Tuesday 24 people were arrested in confrontations with the police in the neighborhood of Villa El Carmen, in the north of the city of La Paz, during the sixth consecutive day of protests led by a sector of Adepcoca, which demands the closure of the coca market in this area.
The leader of the protests, Freddy Machicado, has warned that the beginning of any dialogue requires the closure of the "illegal post" of Villa El Carmen, under control of the other sector of Adepcoca led by Arnold Alanes.
"If the government wants to dialogue, first of all it should close that illegal coca stall (...) if it wants to put us in jail, it should put us all in jail, if it wants to put bullets in us, it should put bullets in us", said Machicado after the police used tear gas to disperse the protests.
Del Castillo has assured that "the great majority" of those who attended the last mobilizations do not belong to the coca leaf producers' sector, which is being "stigmatized" because of those "bad leaders who are hiring people from other places" to generate "terror and anxiety".
"This type of illegal acts will not be tolerated, wherever they come from", remarked Del Castillo, who accused the rioters of using weapons and homemade explosives against the agents, according to the Bolivian newspaper 'La Razón'.
"We have seen how a person was almost decapitated by a barbed wire placed by radicalized sectors and during the night a policewoman was kidnapped and beaten", denounced Del Castillo, who once again asked the parties in conflict to sit down to negotiate.
This Tuesday 24 people were arrested in confrontations with the police in the neighborhood of Villa El Carmen, in the north of the city of La Paz, during the sixth consecutive day of protests led by a sector of Adepcoca, which demands the closure of the coca market in this area.
The leader of the protests, Freddy Machicado, has warned that the beginning of any dialogue requires the closure of the "illegal post" of Villa El Carmen, under control of the other sector of Adepcoca led by Arnold Alanes.
"If the government wants to dialogue, first of all it should close that illegal coca stall (...) if it wants to put us in jail, it should put us all in jail, if it wants to put bullets in us, it should put bullets in us", said Machicado after the police used tear gas to disperse the protests.
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