Clashes rock Bolivia as new interim leader challenged
Luis Andres Henao and Paola Flores, Associated Press
Published 10:33 p.m. ET Nov. 13, 2019
La Paz, Bolivia – Renewed clashes rocked Bolivia’s capital Wednesday as the woman who claimed the presidency, a second-tier lawmaker thrust into the post because of a power vacuum, faced challenges to her leadership from supporters of the ousted Evo Morales.
A day after Jeanine Añez assumed power, violent clashes broke out between rock-throwing Morales’ backers and police in riot gear, who fired volleys of tear gas to disperse the large crowd of protesters as fighter jets flew low overhead in a show of force.
A supporter of Bolivia's former President Evo Morales yells at a police officer, telling him to respect the nation's indigenous people in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019. (Photo: Natacha Pisarenko, AP)
Opposition was also building in Congress, where lawmakers loyal to Morales were mounting a challenge to Añez’s legitimacy by trying to hold new sessions that would undermine her claim to the presidency. The sessions – dismissed as invalid by Añez’s faction – added to the political uncertainty following the resignation of Morales, the nation’s first indigenous leader, after nearly 14 years in power.
In the streets, angry demonstrators tore off corrugated sheets of metal and wooden planks from construction sites to use as weapons, and some set off sticks of dynamite. Many along flooded the streets of the capital and its sister city of El Alto, a Morales stronghold, waving the multicolored indigenous flag and chanting, “Now, civil war!”
More:
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/world/2019/11/13/clashes-rock-bolivia-new-interim-leader-challenged/40611061/
LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142394835
(It's likely the reason the cop's cheek is swollen so much is that he's probably chewing coca leaves. I did a double take myself, then I it's a common thing to do, they sell it in bags everywhere.)