President Evo Morales has reportedly been “profoundly affected” by Mr Illanes’s death.
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He had been visiting the town of Panduro, 165 kilometres south-east of La Paz, when he was kidnapped by striking miners following an attempt to initiate talks with them at a roadblock. The leftist and labor leader sees himself as a champion of workers, and counted the country’s mining cooperatives as key allies.
Bolivian Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes, who was killed on August 27, 2016 by miners.
The alleged murder took place on Thursday evening in Panduro, which is 160 kilometers from the Bolivian capital of La Paz.
The National Federation of Mining Cooperatives began the indefinite protest after negotiations with the government failed on mining legislation.
Deputy Minister Rodolfo Illanes, whose formal title is vice minister of the interior regime, had traveled Thursday to the scene of the violent protests in an effort to negotiate with the strikers who armed themselves with dynamite and seized several highways.
President Evo Morales was “deeply shaken” upon receiving the news, Ferreira said on private television station Red Uno, before breaking down in tears.
Before Illanes’s killing, miners had agreed with the government to start negotiating on Friday morning, on condition they reopened blocked roads.
The autopsy showed the deputy interior minister died of multiple blows to the chest and head after being tortured for up to seven hours.
“Our natural resources belong to the people.Illanes was a hero in the defense of our natural resources”, said Morales, adding that the prosecutor-general had been ordered to ensure all those responsible were brought to justice.
Miners Severino Ichota, Fermin Mamani and Ruben Aparaya Pillco also were killed in clashes this week with police near roadblocks.
Tensions have been running high in the South American country since Wednesday, when two workers who were blocking a highway were killed by police.
“Around 100 miners were detained after Thursday’s protests”, he said.
The authorities could not for the moment retrieve his body, the minister said.
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Independent cooperatives represent the protesters, who reject the influence of unions and want foreign companies to be able to invest in the cooperatives.
