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Bolivian police, protesters clash at gas plants

Protesters armed with sticks and dynamite clashed with police and troops Saturday as they evicted them from two natural gas facilities in southeastern Bolivia, the interior minister said.
/ Source: Reuters

Protesters armed with sticks and dynamite clashed with police and troops Saturday as they evicted them from two natural gas facilities in southeastern Bolivia, the interior minister said.

About 200 demonstrators stormed into the plants Friday to protest the government’s nationalization of the energy industry, which they say has not gone far enough. The protest cut gas supplies to the domestic market, but not exports.

“The police and the army have seized control of the facilities operated by Transredes and Bolivian Hydocarbons Logistics Company,” Interior Minister Alfredo Rada said in the administrative capital, La Paz.

He said two people had been wounded by rubber bullets when army and police forces evicted the demonstrators from the facilities at dawn Saturday.

“Security forces have only been allowed to use tear gas and rubber bullets. The use of real bullets hasn’t been authorized,” Rada said ,adding that the protesters had attacked police and soldiers with dynamite, stones and sticks.

Local radio station Fides cited witnesses as saying as many as seven protesters had been hurt.

The protesters, who have blocked roads in the country’s gas-rich southeast for the past five days, seized control of a pipeline control station run by Transredes. Energy major Royal Dutch Shell has a 25 percent stake in Transredes.

They later took over another facility controlled by local company Compania Logistica de Hidrocarburos de Bolivia.

The leftist government of President Evo Morales nationalized Bolivia’s energy industry in May 2006, but the protesters say he has failed to make good on vows to return to state control several small gas fields in the region.

Protesters also demand the government relocates YPFB’s exploration and exploitation unit to the town of Camiri, which lies some 1,000 km southeast of La Paz.

Energy Minister Carlos Villegas sought to assure the demonstrators their demands would be met.

“They can be absolutely sure that we’re going to overhaul YPFB ... (and) we’re going through a negotiation process to retake control of those fields,” he told reporters.

Morales — a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — took office a year ago on pledges to boost state control over natural resources, and invest the extra revenue to ease poverty in South America’s poorest country.

Under the nationalization, foreign energy companies with operations in Bolivia signed new operating deals that give YPFB control of production. The government says the state will see a bigger share of profits, though several of the firms have disputed that.