US voices alarm over Bolivia unrest as protests spread nationwide

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, May 19 (Reuters) – U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said on Tuesday he spoke with Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz and was very concerned about escalating unrest in the South American country, where nationwide protests over austerity measures have sparked instability.

Demonstrations that began with strikes in early May have grown into a nationwide movement involving labor unions, miners, transport workers and rural groups. Protesters are pressing Paz’s government to roll back the austerity measures and address rising living costs, with some calling for his resignation.

Landau told a conference hosted by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, he hoped and expected other South American countries to join in repudiating what he described as a “coup” that could jeopardize democratically elected governments.

“I am very concerned about Bolivia,” Landau said, describing his call with Paz. “I mean, it cannot be that, you know, you have a democratic process where he was elected overwhelmingly by the Bolivian people less than a year ago and now you have violent demonstrators blockading the streets,” Landau said.

“Make no mistake about it. This is a coup that’s being financed by this unholy alliance between politics and organized crime throughout the region,” he said.

Several Bolivian banks on Tuesday temporarily closed branches in the city of La Paz over security concerns amid escalating unrest against Paz’s government, which took office in November, ending nearly two decades of leftist rule.

Landau said the Trump administration was working to ensure that anti-government, anti-institutional forces did not prevail. 

“I would hate to see, you know, this very promising opening go down the drain,” he said. “It’s bad for all the countries in the Americas to see this kind of incivility.”

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)