Supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro protest in Caracas. AFP
Bolivian taxi driver Carlos Lara has spent three nights sleeping in his car at a service station, hoping that petrol supplies held up by supporters of former president Evo Morales will make it through.
“No petrol, no work,” the 72-year-old Lara said on Sunday as supporters of Morales continued to block a road leading from La Paz to a refinery to the east, leaving gas stations bone dry.
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He has been waiting in his car since 7am on Thursday, and kills time by listening to the radio or chatting with taxi colleagues who, like him, are on the lookout for a truck with petrol so they can get back to work.
“They tell us that the petrol will arrive ‘maybe tomorrow,’ and the next day it is ‘maybe tomorrow’ again. And that is where we are right now,” said Lara, pointing to several dozens cars in line with him.
The scene is repeated at just about every petrol station in La Paz, Bolivia’s administrative capital and ground zero of a red hot political crisis.
Morales resigned a week ago amid violent protests over alleged fraud in his re-election to a fourth term in presidential voting on October 20.
Ever since then, Morales backers have demonstrated daily to demand the resignation of Jeanine Anez, a conservative senator who was legally in line to replace him and declared herself acting president on Tuesday.
Clashes have broken out with security forces, especially in the central city of Cochabamba, a Morales stronghold. Nine people died, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Protesters blocked a road leading from La Paz to the neighbouring city of El Alto earlier this past week. They have now blocked the key supply route from La Paz to Santa Cruz, the country’s financial capital, and to the centre and east of the country, where farming is concentrated.
These demonstrators have also blocked the Sanketa refinery near El Alto, which supplies gasoline and natural gas to the entire La Paz region.
Colonel Rodolfo Montero, the new head of the Bolivian police, said on Sunday that the regional commander in El Alto has begun a dialogue with the protesters. But no progress has been reported so far.
Lara says he has nothing against the protesters. In his opinion, the Anez government made a big mistake and could have calmed things down without calling out soldiers and police as it did near Cochabamba.
