Bolivian president declares state of emergency and deploys military to quell anti-government protests

Bulldozers sent in to clear roadblocks that have stifled the country as farmers and Indigenous groups protest against conservative president Bolivia’s president declared a state of emergency on Saturday and deployed soldiers and bulldozers to raze anti-government roadblocks that have paralysed the country. For more than six weeks, unions, Indigenous groups and coca farmers have marched through cities and blocked roads across the country with rubble, logs and debris in protest against the conservative government. Major cities have suffered acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine, the economy has lost billions of dollars, and the protests have threatened to topple Bolivia’s first non-socialist government in two decades. The president, Rodrigo Paz, appeared in a predawn televised address on Saturday to warn protesters they would face “the full force of the law” as he moved to end the crisis. He declared a 90-day state of emergency, which curbs the right to protest and allows the military to be deployed domestically. Hours after his address, AFP reporters in the city of El Alto saw squads of soldiers and armed police moving in a convoy as bulldozers moved in to clear roadblocks. Som