Bolivia descends into chaos after police join strikers
Government plans for a tax rise sparked a week of bloody riots in La Paz. Sandra Jordan reports as yet another South American nation implodes

It has been a weekend of funerals in La Paz as thousands draped flowers over the coffins of nine policemen who were among at least 33 killed in vicious riots that spread across the Andean nation last week.

Striking police officers returned to work on Friday, restoring a tentative calm, but fears persist that a 48-hour general strike beginning tomorrow will catapult the country back into chaos. The strike, organised by the Central Bolivian Workers' Union - the country's largest - is in protest against the government's economic policies and to demand the resignation of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. Nationwide blockades by independence-seeking indigenous people and coca farmers are also planned.

Last week's violence was triggered when the 22,000 strong police force and other government employees mutinied against a salary tax, triggering two days of riots as troops were called in to restore order. Despite criticism of its handling of events, the government refused to take responsibility, denouncing the riots as an attempted coup, the product of a 'conspiracy' against democracy.
[more]