Street clashes, on the first day of blockades and demonstrations in the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia to demand an early census, left one dead on Saturday October 22 in Puerto Quijarro, near the Brazilian border, announced the government, l UN and EU calling for an end to violence.
The census is used to recalculate the distribution of congressional seats and public resources.
However, the region of Santa Cruz, the economic locomotive of Bolivia and the most populated, governed by the right-wing opposition, considers itself disadvantaged by an obsolete census dating from more than 10 years ago.
"
We have a first victim of the strike in Puerto Quijarro
," said Deputy Communications Minister Gabriela Alcon.
Leftist President Luis Arce condemned the violence on Twitter.
He called for the light to be shed on this tragedy "
which caused the irreparable loss of human life
" and for the investigation to allow "
punishment of those responsible
".
Member of a group opposed to the government
The victim, Pablo Taborga, was part of a group of residents opposed to the blocking of a bridge organized by opponents of the president's left-wing government.
Images on social networks showed violent street clashes, with stones, sticks and firecrackers, at the level of this bridge defended by local residents.
The victim's widow told state television that people promoting the strike "
came in with pipe bombs, with sticks
".
“
And at one point my husband was beaten with sticks by several people
,” she charged.
Pablo Taborga was admitted to a local hospital, where he later died, she said.
The Santa Cruz region was paralyzed on Saturday by protesters demanding that President Arce's leftist government bring forward the population census scheduled for 2024 by a year.
In Santa Cruz, public transport was paralyzed and the streets almost deserted.
The government says it cannot bring the census forward to 2023 and calls for negotiations.
The UN "
urged political and social actors to avoid scenarios of violence and confrontation
", the EU calling for its part "
to find scenarios of reunion between Bolivians
".
Bolivia has been shaken by a political crisis unprecedented since 2019, when the right-wing opposition denounced electoral fraud and pushed former indigenous president Evo Morales to resign.