LA PAZ (AP) ― Bolivia’s interior minister and his deputy resigned Tuesday after mounting recriminations over a violent police crackdown on marchers opposed to a jungle highway that they say would despoil an indigenous preserve.
Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti became the second Cabinet member to step down over the weekend action, which backfired as angry crowds pressured police into releasing the hundreds of protesters they had detained.
Defense Minister Cecilia Chacon resigned in protest immediately after Sunday’s crackdown by about 500 police officers who fired tear gas and wielded clubs in the eastern lowlands.
The backlash is a major setback for President Evo Morales, who by stubbornly insisting on the 300-kilometer jungle highway had alienated many of his indigenous core supporters in this poor, landlocked nation where more than two in three people are members of indigenous groups.
Morales announced Monday that he was suspending the Brazil-funded highway and leaving it to voters in the two affected regions to decide its fate.
Llorenti had initially defended the crackdown and denied excessive force was used.
But before resigning on Tuesday he said neither he nor Morales had ordered the police against the marchers. He blamed Deputy Minister Marcos Farfan, who resigned to take responsibility but also denied ordering the police action.
