Morning Star.png Government Condemns Minister's Murder James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 27 August 2016 Bolivia's deputy interior minister has been "brutally murdered" by the rioting miners he was sent to negotiate with on Thursday, the government has said. "All signs indicate that our deputy minister, Rodolfo Illanes, has been cowardly and brutally murdered," Interior Minister Carlos Romero told reporters. He said that Mr Illanes was abducted, tortured and beaten to death by protesting Fedecomin miners' co-operative members in the town of Panduro in Cochabamba department, near the capital La Paz. "He was harassed, tortured . he was beaten to death according to the information we have," Defence Minister Reymi Ferreira said. Mr Ferreira said Socialist president Evo Morales was "deeply shaken" by the news before breaking down in tears himself. In a separate statement Mr Ferreira said about 100 to 120 arrests had been made in connection with the murder, adding that the ringleaders had been identified and the crime "cannot go unpunished." Mr Illanes, who was appointed in March, went to Panduro in an attempt to mediate with miners blockading the road after days of violent protests in which two miners had been killed, 20 police injured and two taken prisoner. Mr Illanes had earlier told local media by telephone that "I am in very good health . safeguarded by peers, so people do not hurt me." But later local radio station director Moises Flores said: "We saw the lifeless body of Deputy Minister Illanes." His bodyguard escaped after miners took his gun and was in hospital in La Paz. The protests began on August 10 over proposed changes to the Co-operative Law, which allows co-op workers to form unions. The miners' initial list of 10 demands included subsidised electricity, abolition of some environmental regulations and, crucially, the right to make deals with foreign companies, which Mr Morales said was contrary to the constitution. "They are not another state, or a republic, our natural resources belong to the Bolivian people by constitution," he said on August 15. "The only one who can sign contracts is the state." The miners resumed their roadblocks on Tuesday, increasing their list of demands to 24. Mr Romero said Mr Illanes had been convinced that they "could be persuaded and urged into a dialogue with the government . but he was intercepted." [email protected] From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-f1a3-Government-condemns-ministers-murd er#.V8ESuPl9600 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14026 (20160826) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/000c01d20023%24365ff780%24a31fe680%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
