Violence-wracked Bolivia is turning to OAS for help

www.charlotte.com Posted on Sun, Feb. 16, 2003 KEVIN G. HALL Knight Ridder

LA PAZ, Bolivia - regime in trouble The Bolivian government Saturday said it would ask the Organization of American States to investigate the presence of snipers in two days of violence that left at least two dozen dead and caused millions of dollars in damage in the poor Andean nation.

Government spokesman Mauricio Antesana said Saturday the OAS would be asked to form a special investigations commission through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. That OAS body, he said, would be seen as neutral and independent and would serve as an honest broker between the government and its opponents.

The OAS has 35 member nations in North and South America, including the United States. This is the latest case of the OAS being drawn into a domestic dispute where local institutions lacked credibility. It has tried to mediate a solution to Venezuela's political and economic stalemate, and was involved in Peru's 2001 transition to democracy.

In Bolivia, the OAS would be asked to address concerns of human-rights groups that said military sharpshooters fired off rooftops at demonstrators and police on Wednesday.

Striking police officers refused to stop demonstrators who attacked the presidential residence and set three government ministries ablaze, as well as city hall in El Alto, a poor suburb of the capital, La Paz. The government continues to investigate who fired first in what became a bloody shootout between police and soldiers.

The government also wants the OAS to investigate what Antesana said may have been a coup attempt. Shots were fired from a high-caliber weapon into the president's bedroom and office in the palace in La Paz, he said.

Bolivia's tumult, in which 29 people died, began when the government on Monday announced a 12 percent income tax hike affecting mainly the middle class. The tax was part of an International Monetary Fund recipe for lowering Bolivia's swelling budget deficit.

President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's decision to withdraw plans for the tax increase only brought tenuous peace. The roots of the problem, a deepening economic crisis and an energetic opposition, remain ever-present and signal more trouble for a leader who won the presidency with only 22.5 percent of the vote.

"He's got a big, serious problem," said Eduardo Gamarra, an expert on Bolivia at Miami's Florida International University. "He has 4 1/2 years left in his term. How is he going to last 4 1/2 years?"

Bolivia is isolated and poor, with just 8.3 million people, but the ramifications are enormous if Sanchez de Lozada is forced out. He is not the only president in Latin America facing politically destabilizing street protests.

"I think this sets a very disturbing precedent," said Michael Shifter, who tracks Latin American politics for the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. The New York Times contributed to this article.