LA PAZ, Bolivia — Thousands of Indian-led protesters filled the streets of this capital Tuesday, challenging the Bolivian president and leaders of the country's eastern business elite amid persistent rumors of a possible military coup.
Leaders of the protest, who are based mostly in the Aymara Indian-dominated suburb of El Alto, had declared an indefinite general strike in the capital the day before to demand the nationalization of Bolivia's petroleum and gas reserves. They say revenue from the country's most lucrative resource should help its poorest citizens.
On Tuesday, police battled protesters in the city center with tear gas and water cannons while crowds blocked some routes into the capital.
"We have the right to defend our natural gas, our natural resources," said Maria Validviezo, a 37-year-old mother of seven who marched from a village outside the city.
"We live from our land. Our children can only study up to the fifth grade, and then they're left to their own devices."
Some of the Indian leaders have threatened to storm Congress as early as this evening if lawmakers approved a referendum that would allow the country's oil-rich eastern provinces to declare greater political autonomy from the rest of Bolivia.
Civic and business leaders in the province of Santa Cruz want more control over the oil wealth produced there. Indian protesters have opposed the autonomy movement and called instead for a constituent assembly to rewrite the nation's constitution, in part to recognize the traditional authority of Indian leaders and institutions.
In a scathing editorial Tuesday in the Santa Cruz newspaper El Mundo, Publisher Ronald Mendez accused Indian and union leaders of engaging in a conspiracy against the people of Santa Cruz.
"They don't want us to sell our natural gas to anyone or to any place, just so that we don't reach our full economic potential as a region," Mendez wrote.
Last weekend, thousands of Santa Cruz residents demonstrated to demand regional autonomy.
At the center of the conflicts stands President Carlos Mesa, the historian and onetime television commentator who more than once this year has threatened to resign in the face of protests and barricades that have periodically paralyzed the nation's transportation system.
But Mesa has mostly remained silent in recent days, even as thousands of farmers and union activists marched on the capital.
