Protests took place throughout Bolivia this month, as the nation's indigenous agrarian communities expressed growing frustration following the July 18 gas referendum. On August 16, indigenous protesters in El Chore, a town in northeastern Bolivia, blocked access to and occupied a British Petroleum installation in the Humberto Suarez Roca. Protesters demanded that operations stop and that they be given titles to their ancestral lands.
Indigenous peoples and landless peasants had hoped the referendum would provide for the nationalization of natural gas, but the referendum did not directly address the issue. While the vaguely worded referendum still needs to be translated into law by the Bolivian Congress, President Carlos Mesa has threatened to block any laws that are not in line with his own interpretation, which favors privatized companies.
