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Bolivian government supporters and protesters bringing forward the 2024 national census by one year clashed Saturday in the country’s economic hub of Santa Cruz, leaving one dead.
The protests were of a strike in Santa Cruz.
The skirmishes erupted in the early hours of the morning when government supporters and detractors emerged armed with rocks, sticks and explosives in Puerto Quijarro, a town of about 20,000 people bordering Brazil, according to images posted on social media.
A man who tried to prevent anti-government protesters from blocking a bridge in Puerto Quijarro was reportedly attacked with sticks and admitted to a hospital in the city, where he died.
“We condemn the violence exercised by a civic strike that caused the irreparable loss of a human life in Puerto Quijarro,” leftist President Luis Arce said.
Although the census is scheduled for 2024, some need it to be brought forward to next year, so that the influence of the burgeoning Santa Cruz region within the legislature is reflected earlier.
“We want more resources. This department, Santa Cruz, is very giant and they are very limited, for health, education,” Claudia López, a 35-year-old shopkeeper, told AFP.
The conservative-leaning lowland city of two million people has a bustling commercial and agriculture hub on the outskirts, the dry Andean city of La Paz, seat of the country’s government, which is heavily influenced by indigenous Quechua and Aymara peoples.
Many crowded Santa Cruz streets were blocked and empty Saturday.
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