Government sources said that Illanes had been kidnapped by striking miners.
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Illanes was captured in the area of Pandura, on the highway between the cities of La Paz and Oruro, Romero announced earlier in the day in a press conference. Two miners were killed in police firing, and 17 officers were injured.
Defence Minister Reymi Ferreira broke down on television as he described how Illanes, appointed to his post in March, had apparently been “beaten and tortured to death”.
The National Federation of Mining Co-operatives of Bolivia, once strong allies of Bolivian President Evo Morales, began what they said would be an indefinite protest after negotiations failed.
According to reports, Illanes was kidnapped on Thursday when he went to talk to protesting miners in Panduro, around 160km from capital La Paz. Miners also demand other economic concessions from the government, the BBC Spanish service said.
Illanes had been taken prisoner by miners as he tried to persuade them to end roadblocks, and he had said earlier on Thursday that authorities need to establish a dialogue with the protesters.
Bolivian policemen clash with miners near a blocked road in Panduro, Bolivia, August 25, 2016.
The strike has turned violent recently with two protesters being killed and riot police failing to clear a highway in a western part of the Andean nation.
Illanes’ body was later found abandoned on the side of the highway, his auto burned.
Flores told Erbol Radio by telephone from Panduro, some 180 kilometres from La Paz, where clashes erupted between miners and police.
Bolivia’s informal miners number about 100,000 and work in self-managed cooperatives that primarily produce zinc, tin, silver, gold and lead concentrates.
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“They want to be able to associate with private companies, which is prohibited”, the wire service reports. The government argues that if they associate with multinational companies they would cease to be cooperatives. Though down from recent years, Bolivia is still expected to see GDP growth of about 3.9 percent in 2016, outperforming its South American neighbors.
