MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Deeply concerned” with Bolivia

United States said it was “deeply concerned” with the violent incidents of last week in Bolivia involving police forces and the Army that have left at least twenty seven dead and much damage to property as a result of “civilian vandalism”.

White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer added that United States "condemns unnecessary violence that undermines the principle of authority", and reiterated its full support for Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and his democratically elected government and demanded a peaceful solution to the country's economic and other challenges.

Mr. Fleischer said Washington will continue to supply economic and financial aid to Bolivia as well as support to the Bolivian government and people in these difficult times.

During last week a police protest in demand of higher salaries in downtown La Paz, the country's capital, turned into an open exchange of shooting with Army forces guarding the Presidential Palace and other government offices, leaving at least 27 dead between security forces and civilians. In the middle of the chaos since police forces were on strike hordes rampaged and looted government offices and private shops in La Paz and other cities.

The police forces strike was the trigger for a volatile social and political situation that unleashed when it became public that President Sanchez de Lozada sent to Congress a budget that not only did it not contemplate pay raises for civil servants and security forces, but rather introduced a 4 to 12% tax on all salaries, apparently following IMF recommendations for a balanced budget.

In an impoverished and politically divided country President Sanchez de Lozada heads a relatively weak coalition, and his main opponent is an Indian Deputy, Evo Morales, who was the second most voted presidential candidate and leader of the rebellious coca planters who refuse to give up their profitable crops.

Mr. Sanchez de Lozada as previous presidents with aid and support are trying to eliminate the coca plantations allegedly because they end in Colombian laboratories and later in the streets of United States.

In Buenos Aires, caretaker president Eduardo Duhalde who's had a long irritating confrontation with the IMF said the popular bloody uprising was consequence of the Bolivian government's insistence in following IMF's recommendations to overcome the crisis.

"This is exactly what happened in Argentina at the end of 2001 when the previous government reduced salaries and froze savings and deposits following IMF recommendations", underlined Mr. Duhalde who was voted in by the Argentine Congress January 2002 after killings and rioting in Buenos Aires forced the former elected president Fernando de la Rúa to resign.