 SUCRE: Bolivia's supreme court chief, Eduardo Rodriguez, took office as president Thursday and vowed to hold early elections, fighting to quell a three-week uprising by masses of poor people demanding a share of the country's natural gas riches. Rodriguez, 49, was sworn in as the 84th president late Thursday at an emergency session of Congress, convened in the colonial capital of Sucre as violent protests gripped Bolivia, unleashing a warning of a military crackdown.
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For three weeks, tens of thousands of farmers, workers and indigenous people have clamoured on the streets of La Paz and other cities for the nationalisation of the gas and oil industry and a more equitable distribution of the country's meagre wealth. Bolivia's social meltdown pits poorer Andean regions in and around La Paz against interests in the more modern, relatively prosperous eastern and southern plains, where most of the natural gas wealth is located. |