Alwaght- Bolivian police fired tear gas at the supporters of the country’s former president Evo Morales, as unrest aggravates in the aftermath of the forced resignation of the leftist leader.
Violence broke out on Monday when thousands of demonstrators marched in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba to demand the resignation of the self-proclaimed interim President Jeanine Anez.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters after they started throwing rocks at security forces. At least ten protesters were arrested during the clashes.
Support for Morales has long been strong in Cochabamba and the nearby town of Sacaba. Last week, a rights observation report came out that denounced the excessive use of force in the area after 20 people were reported to have been killed in the unrest since Morales resigned.
Similar protests were also staged in other cities across the Latin American country, including in the capital, La Paz, on Monday.
Tensions began in Bolivia after Morales won the country’s presidential election on October 20. The opposition rejected the outcome and claimed that there had been fraud in the electoral process.
That sparked violent street protests in the Latin American country, in what the Morales government called a coup.
Leftist governments and prominent figures in Latin America slam an opposition-led “coup” against Bolivia’s Morales, who was forced to resign amid post-election protests.
However, under pressure from the military and his political opponents, Morales announced his resignation from his post and was granted asylum in Mexico.
Protests against his resignation entered a new phase last Tuesday, when Anez, the former deputy speaker of Bolivia’s senate, declared herself acting president in a legislative session that failed to reach a quorum because it had been boycotted by legislators from Morales’ left-wing party.
The total number of fatalities in the post-election unrest in Bolivia now stands at 23.
