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The Plaza Murillo as a symbol of power
The pigeons of plaza Murillo no longer receive their evening corn from the children. It is surrounded by police who defended it with tear gas for weeks, the plaza that borders with the Palacio Quemada and the National Congress. The social movements lift the banner for the nationalisation of hydrocarbons and the Constituent Assembly. With these demands the Federation of Neighbourhood Assembly's of the city of El Alto, the Regional Labour Association, the Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia and other organisations seek to maximise measures by doing a civic strike in the city of El Alto, while the government headquarters are the centre of mobilizations and marches. Still without response from the Congress, and after various days of protests, the Neighbourhood Assemblies, in an extension of presidents, presented a report of the preceding events and took the resolution of maximising pressurising measures, to demand the resignation of the president of Congress, Vaca Díez, of the mayor of El Alto, the ratification of the October agenda, and also of closing of access to the international airport of El Alto and of the factory Senkata. Félix Mamani, of the Neighbourhood Assembly said "we are going to radicalise the mobilisations, we have given the mayor an ultimatum for him to join the mobilisations, we have also determined to ask for the resignation of Vaca Díez, who are people incapable of finding solutions." In addition to these measures a 48 hour transport strike was summoned by the Confederation of Drivers, as a complete strike and a permanent vigilance by the neighbourhood assemblies and the COR, cutting the path of all vehicles towards La Paz. In regards the national petitions, the drivers said "we have to unite because we are one family until we attain our objective"; in addition to saying that it is a measure of protection regarding their means of work. While sectorial demands of the miner's cooperatives add their adherence, health workers that initiated a strike, urban and rural school teachers have also been striking. The Public University of El Alto (UPEA), whose students were accused of provoking vandalism against public and private property. Under the banner of nationalisation and Constituent Assembly the social movements surrounded the Plaza Murillo which was strongly guarded by police, chanting "gas is not for sale, it's not given either, it is industrialised". The possible entry of the marchers into the square mobilised the police who made use of gas and water to disperse them. The social movements also raised a vigil awaiting the session in Congress, taking over the main streets and arteries of the city, extending the mobilisation into infrequent areas, in a blockade of one thousand street corners. Nonetheless, some confrontations between residents and marchers took place. There were reports of aggressions against those who didn't abide to the closure of shops and commerces, as well as against vehicles that were circulating and took blows to their windows. Although the weekend saw a bit of a breathing space, the marches continued and the lack of food and fuel supplies began to make itself felt. The ruling class showed, once more, that they are unable to respond to the current circumstances, to the demands of the social bodies that demand the resolution of the agenda that arose in October 2003, that of the nationalisation of hydrocarbons and the Constituent Assembly, thus becoming a conflictive panorama for the government who had initially pointed out that these groups were "minority and isolated groups" in relation to the rest of the country. From La Paz: Leslye Rodriguez Alfaro
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