More than 20,000 miners from across Bolivia marched into the capital Tuesday, tossing sticks of dynamite that sent booming explosions echoing through the streets in a protest of President Evo Morales' plans for a steep hike in mining taxes. The hard-hatted miners whistled and chanted as they marched through the center of La Paz to protest the tax proposal, which they say would unfairly burden hundreds of small independent miners' cooperatives. Police said they confiscated some 284 sticks of dynamite, along with hundreds of detonators and rolls of fuse. After negotiations with the miners Monday night, the government announced the cooperatives' taxes would be frozen at current levels until further notice.
See "Bolivian Miners Protest Tax Increase", Dan Keane, San Francisco Chronicle, February 5, 2007