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Bolivian Military Deploys Armored Vehicles to End Blockade of Key Gas Plant

Reuters

   LA PAZ - Bolivian police and military forces used armored vehicles and
   helicopters to clear access to a major gas plant in the city of El Alto
   on Tuesday, a show of strength after blockades at the facility had cut
   off fuel supply to nearby La Paz.

   Helicopters flew above roads around the Senkata gas plant, operated by
   state-run YPFB, which were blocked with piles of burning tires,
   according to a Reuters witness. Protesters are demanding the return of
   unseated leftist leader Evo Morales.

   Morales resigned on Nov. 10 amid anti-government demonstrations and
   rising pressure over vote-rigging allegations after an audit by the
   Organization of American States (OAS) found serious irregularities in
   an Oct. 20 election.

   But Morales supporters have since ramped up protests, calling for
   caretaker President Jeanine Anez to step down and for Morales to
   return. Mounting violence in the South American nation has seen 27
   people killed in street clashes.

   In what it said was a bid to restore calm, Bolivia's congress,
   controlled by lawmakers from Morales' Movement for Socialism (MAS),
   said on Tuesday it would cancel a contentious vote in the legislature
   that had been expected to reject Morales' resignation.

   The vote would be suspended "to create and contribute to an environment
   conducive to dialogue and peace," the Legislative Assembly said in a
   statement, citing instructions from new Senate head and MAS lawmaker
   Monica Eva Copa Murga.

   Eva Copa Murga later told reporters the assembly would prepare
   legislation to annul the Oct. 20 election and move towards new
   elections as soon as possible. The two chambers of Congress will
   convene separately on Wednesday.

   "We do not want more deaths, we do not want more blood," she said,
   flanked by the majority of the MAS party lawmakers, calling on the
   military and pro-Morales group to demobilize.

   The country's human right ombudsman said that three people have been
   killed in clashes with security forces around Senkata.

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