Bolivia, 33 officers injured in clashes with Morales supporters

(ANSA) – LA PAZ, OCTOBER 29 – Increasingly violent clashes today between the supporters of former president Evo Morales, who were blocking the old road that connects the cities of Cochabamba with Santa Cruz, and the police of the Bolivian government who wanted to free the communication route near Mairana, a town of 11 thousand inhabitants. The toll is 33 injured police officers, twenty of whom were evacuated by helicopter to the workers’ hospital of the Bolivian Health Fund (CNS) in Santa Cruz, the economic capital of the South American country. The other 13 less seriously injured officers, by car, were instead transported to the CNS hospital in Vallegrande, a town that has become famous because the remains of Che Guevara were found here 17 years ago. “According to preliminary medical reports, they would have suffered sprains, fractures and blows” reports the Santa Cruz newspaper, El Deber. Journalist Romer Castedo and his cameraman Ricardo Pedraza of Red Uno television, who were covering the clashes in Mairana, were freed after being kidnapped for 4 hours in an exchange with some demonstrators arrested by the police. “They burned our helmets and microphone, all our safety equipment was burned, we only managed to save the camera but we spent at least four hours being told that they were going to burn us,” Castedo told local media. Meanwhile, the roadblocks in Bolivia continue after 16 days and, according to the practicability map of the Bolivian Highway Administration (ABC), there are currently 23 active, 19 in the department of Cochabamba, two in that of Oruro, and one each in the departments of Potosí and Santa Cruz. (HANDLE).