Striking miners kidnap and murder politician

Bolivia: Man killed over freedom to join private companies

Striking Bolivian miners have kidnapped and beaten to death the country’s deputy interior minister in a shocking spasm of violence.

The killing followed weeks of tension over dwindling wages in a region hit hard by falling metal prices.

The miners were demanding they be allowed to work for private companies, who promise to put more cash in their pockets.

The issue has bedevilled president Evo Morales, who began as a champion of the working class and privatised the nation’s mining industry, only to see his support plunge amid the downturn.

Miners say Morales has become an accomplice of the rich, and done little to help them make ends meet as the economy slows.

Deputy minister Rodolfo Illanes, whose formal title was vice minister of the interior regime, had travelled on Thursday to the scene of the violent protests in an effort to negotiate with the strikers who armed themselves with dynamite and seized several roads.

Instead, Illanes was “savagely beaten” to death by miners, defence minister Reymi Ferreira told Red Uno television, his voice breaking.

Apost-mortem examination found Illanes died from trauma to the brain and thorax. Seven miners’ leaders were detained by police, and their offices raided.

“This is a political conspiracy, not a social demand,” Morales said at a news conference yesterday, accusing his opponents of backing the miners’ demands. He called for three days of official mourning, criticised the “cowardly attitude” of the protesters and insisted that his government had “always been open” to negotiation.

Illanes “was kidnapped, tortured and murdered”, Morales said.

Businessman and opposition leader Samuel Doria Medina rejected Morales’ comments about the opposition and said the government should try to make peace.

VIOLENCE: Independent miners clash with the police as they run from clouds of tear gas during protests in Panduro, Bolivia on Thursday

Rodolfo Illanes: killed