Police hurt in clashes with Bolivian protesters over fuel hikes

Fifteen police officers have been hurt in clashes with protesters in Bolivia, as major cities were crippled by a transport strike protesting fuel price hikes. The unrest took place in El Alto, the residential area next to the capital, La Paz.

Reuters/Freddy Zarco

Thousands of protesters were reportedly throwing up barricades across access roads, burning tires and hurling stones at government buildings.

Earlier in the day, President Evo Morales's palace in La Paz was besieged by angry demonstrators who were repelled by police using tear gas.

"There are 15 police officers injured in El Alto, two of them seriously.... There are 16 people arrested in Cochabamba and five in El Alto," an administration official told the news agency AFP.

The scenes in the capital, long an electoral stronghold for the left-winger Morales, showed the extent of public fury at the president for lifting costly government fuel subsidies on Sunday, sending prices soaring by 83 per cent.

The government says the price increase was necessary in part because subsidised fuel was being smuggled across Bolivia's borders to neighbouring countries.

Elsewhere in La Paz, public transport was at a near standstill as long lines formed at stores, where shelves emptied as residents stocked up fearing wider unrest.

“What the government has to do is to revoke the fuel price increase and stay with the people who have supported them,” said Fanny Nina, the head of Fejuve, which groups neighbourhood associations in El Alto.

Morales attempted to stem the growing public discontent late Wednesday by announcing a 20-per cent minimum salary increase, but powerful unions and civil groups still promised further strikes, marches and disruptions.

Even Morales's strongest base, the coca growers' union, publicly opposed the price hikes.

Morales ordered the military to provide people in need with basic goods such as bread and dispatched soldiers and air force personnel to run buses, trucks and planes.

Truckers blocked key intersections with their rigs in Cochabamba, 400 kilometres south-east of La Paz, while Bolivia's economic capital Santa Cruz was also hard hit by a transport strike and demonstrations.

Workers took to the streets in the Andean mining cities of Oruro and Potosi, while the head of the powerful Bolivian Labour Central union confederation also threatened a nationwide protest.