Protesting workers clash with police in Bolivia

Hundreds of workers in Bolivia have clashed with riot police while protesting against recent mass lay-offs at a state-owned company.

Around 300 workers from the Bolivian Workers’ Center (COB) staged a rally in Cochabamba, in central Bolivia, on Wednesday, on the first day of a 72-hour strike called by the COB in protest at the firing of around 900 workers from Enatex, the largest state-run textile firm in the country, back in May.

At least nine people, including four police officers, sustained injuries in the clashes that ensued between the two sides, and 29 people were arrested.

Protests were held in several cities of the South American country, with street blockades and marches, but the biggest clash occurred in Cochabamba, the fourth largest city in Bolivia, where protesting workers attempted to block the road linking the region with the western parts of the country.

Riot police resorted to firing tear gas to disperse the protesters, who responded by beating the police with wooden sticks and hurling stones at them.

According to the provincial head of COB, Angel Camacho, police “acted with much brutality” and two of the protesters were “seriously” wounded.

According to state television, road blockades were also set up in other cities, including La Paz, Arija, Oruro, Potosi and Santa Cruz.

In 2006, when President Evo Morales came to power, the COB was one of his main political allies, but last week, it announced that it had broken ranks with the government over its “unfair” and “neoliberal” closure of the La Paz-based Enatex on May 16.

The company plunged into a crisis when Morales expelled the American ambassador in 2008, which resulted in Enatex — back then called as Ametex — losing its US market.

In 2011, and in a bid to save it from bankruptcy, the government bought the company, and renamed it Enatex in 2012.

Morales hoped to find substitute markets in Latin American countries, including Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela and Argentina, but failed, and in the months leading to its closure, the textile company had problems in paying wages and Christmas bonuses to its employees.

It consequently had to shut down its stores one by one, despite the government’s attempts to relaunch products at lower prices.

During the past months, several protests have been held in protest at the government’s failure in saving the company and preventing hundreds of its workers from losing their jobs.

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