Striking miners kidnap, then kill deputy minister
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA — Striking Bolivian miners kidnapped and beat to death the country’s deputy interior minister in a shocking spasm of violence following weeks of tension over dwindling paychecks 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 bedeviled President Evo Morales, who began as a champion of the working class and nationalized the nation’s mining industry, only to see his support crater amid the downturn. Miners say Morales has become a shill of the rich and has done little to help them make ends meet as the economy slowed.
Deputy Minister Rodolfo Illanes, whose formal title is vice minister of the interior regime, had traveled Thursday to the scene of the violent protests in an effort to negotiate with the strikers, who armed themselves with dynamite and seized several highways.
Instead, Illanes was “savagely beaten” to death by miners, Defense Minister Reymi Ferreira told Red Uno television, his voice breaking.
An autopsy found Illanes had 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 Friday, accusing his opponents of backing the miners’ demands. He called for three days of official mourning, criticized 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.
“The prices of minerals have gone down and the costs of production have increased,” he said. “That is the cause of the protest.”
“Morales would do well to be critical of himself and set aside false conspiracy theories blaming the right wing and the media,” former President Jorge Quiroga said, “when the undercurrent of these protests is the crisis.”
The fatal beating c ame after the killings of two protesters in clashes with police Wednesday — deaths that likely fueled the tensions.
Illanes, who also was a lawyer and university professor, had gone to Panduro, 80 miles south of La Paz, to open a dialogue with the miners. They had blockaded the highway there since Monday, stranding thousands of vehicles and passengers.
Officials said he was taken hostage by the miners Thursday morning. At midday, Illanes said on his Twitter account: “My health is fine, my family can be calm.”
Illanes’ body was later found abandoned on the side of the highway, his car burned.