At least 26 civilians have been injured and two police officers have been shot during the attempt to unblock the San Julián highway, in eastern Bolivia. This has been confirmed by the authorities in the context of the indefinite blockade of roads called by trade union organizations and civil groups against the Bolivian president, Rodrigo Paz.
One of the police officers was injured in the head and the other in the leg in an operation that lasted about four hours, marked by strong clashes, after which the security forces ended up retreating from the area. The officer with the head injury was evacuated to the Obrero Hospital of the Caja Nacional de Salud, as reported by Bolivian media.
"We had a total of 26 injured, two of them seriously. One has a serious diagnosis: open head wound trauma. That patient has been referred with a red file to the city of Santa Cruz because he needs to be treated by a neurosurgeon and operated on," explained a spokesperson for the San Julián Hospital cited by the Bolivian news agency Fides.
Several videos disseminated on social networks show the presence of armed civilians at the blockade point and how some opened fire, according to local press details.
The police operation began early in the morning, around 6:30 AM, on the road connecting Santa Cruz with Trinidad, and four hours later the withdrawal was ordered "for security reasons." During the clashes, police charges, throwing of blunt objects, use of firecrackers and tear gas were recorded.
Before withdrawing, the officers managed to temporarily clear the highway, one of the main arteries between the departments of Santa Cruz and Beni, allowing hundreds of vehicles that had been held up for hours to continue their journey. However, after leaving the site due to a lack of security guarantees, the protesters blocked the road again.
The operation was led by the Police Commander, David Gómez; the Minister of Rural Productive Development and Water, Oscar Mario Justiniano; and the Minister of Hydrocarbons, Marcelo Blanco. The route has been blocked for 24 days.
"The police intervention was carried out after dialogue efforts were exhausted and in the face of widespread rejection of the protest measure by the population. With this deployment, the national government reaffirms its commitment to restore road order, safeguard citizen security, and guarantee the normalization of productive activities in eastern Bolivia," authorities have stated in a communiqué.
In parallel, former president Evo Morales has warned about "confrontation" and "paramilitarism" following a video of Paz calling on the population to mobilize in support of the Armed Forces and the Police. "Media outlets report that groups from the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista moved to San Julián, where they engaged in clashes with protesters in the presence of police officers," he has denounced.
Morales has stressed that "when confrontation between Bolivians is encouraged, democratic institutionalism is weakened and the lives of the people are put at risk."
The protests against President Paz, which began five weeks ago, have so far resulted in ten deaths, 37 injuries, and more than a hundred people prosecuted, according to the Ombudsman's Office count.
Seven of the fatalities died without receiving medical attention or after suffering long delays in their transfer to health centers due to road blockades.