Military crackdown hushes rebellious Bolivian city

By Marco Aquino

COBIJA, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivian troops on Monday started rounding up people accused of organizing protests against leftist President Evo Morales in a remote Amazon province where martial law has shuttered schools and businesses.

Clashes between Morales' supporters and opponents killed up to 30 people in Pando province last week as protests flared across the poor nation's eastern lowlands against the president's drive to redistribute land and change the constitution.

The streets of Pando's small capital, Cobija, were nearly deserted on Monday and protesters demanding greater regional autonomy continued to occupy government agencies, including the customs office.

Isolated gunshots were heard during the night in the city of about 32,000 people, surrounded by the dense Amazon jungle in the heart of South America, where rubber and Brazil nuts are produced.

Amanda Saumero said soldiers arrested her son, Hugo Apaza, during early on Monday.

"They pushed me onto the couch and wouldn't let me get up, asking where my son was. I told them he wasn't here, but they went through my entire house anyway. They found him and took him away," she said between sobs. She said her son works in logging and is not active in politics.

About 60 soldiers used dynamite to break down the door to the house of opposition activist Ana Melena. Her neighbors said they ransacked the house and hauled away a computer.

BLOODSHED

The army said it arrested 10 people overnight and found weapons that could be linked to the deaths of some pro-Morales peasant farmers last Thursday.

The federal government said it is still not sure how many people died on Thursday, after officials had released numbers ranging from 14 to 28. Two more people were killed later at a clash at the Cobija airport.

"We want people to feel calm. We're identifying the people who are linked to illegal activity," said Gen. Walter Panozo, who is enforcing martial law in Pando.

Soldiers have only taken to the streets at night, leaving law enforcement to the police during the day.

The Morales administration has ordered the arrest of Pando's opposition governor, Leopoldo Fernandez, accusing him of ordering hitmen to kill the farmers on Thursday.

Fernandez denied the charges and told Reuters in an interview in Cobija that he was carrying out his normal duties on Monday.

"We're going to stay right here to resist this state of siege," said Fernandez, 56, of the rightist opposition party Podemos. He said Morale is trying to impose Cuban-style communism on Bolivia.