LA PAZ, Bolivia, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Hundreds of thousands of Bolivians took to the streets Tuesday for the second day over the government´s decision to end fuel subsidies.
Protesters clogged the streets of the capital and neighboring El Alto to denounce President Carlos Mesa´s decision to cut the subsidies. Mesa has said he would resign if the protests resulted in bloodshed.
Bolivia, South America´s poorest nation, has been wracked by violence in recent years over frustrations with the last two presidential administrations.
In October 2003, several dozen were killed when then-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada proposed opening the Bolivian gas market to the United States and Mexico by piping it through neighboring Chile.
Many Bolivians in the impoverished landlocked country despise Chile for taking its coast during the War of the Pacific in 1879, and since then Bolivia has not had formal diplomatic relations with its neighbor.
During the protests, de Lozada attempted to pull Bolivia back from the brink by calling for a national referendum on the gas issue. It was rejected.
