La Paz, Oct 17: Tens of thousands of people packed the centre of La Paz to demand President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resign, while armoured cars protected the presidential palace in the tense Bolivian capital. With some estimates of 50,000 people in the streets, yesterday's demonstration was the biggest so far in four weeks of often-violent protests, which human rights groups say have left 86 dead.
Security forces fired tear gas against protesters who pelted them with stones. No casualties were reported. The authorities meanwhile stepped up efforts to break the opposition stranglehold on La Paz. Troops fired warning shots as a supply convoy fought through strikers' picket lines into the city at dawn.
Brazil sent two military transport planes to pick up Brazilian tourists stranded in the city. But hundreds of other tourists from Australia, Britain, France, Switzerland, the United States and other countries are trapped in the city because international flights have been halted since Sunday. The 72-year-old President has remained in his official residence in the San Jorge neighbourhood since Monday as unrest has mounted.
Meanwhile, a report from Washington said the United States has characterised the protests aimed at ousting the president as "UN-democratic". Bureau Report