Bolivia’s president asked Congress for the legal power to send in the army as the blockade crisis turned deadlier and troops cleared a key road. Donald Trump endorsed Abelardo De La Espriella in Colombia, Peru’s candidates close their campaigns before Sunday’s vote, and stock markets fell across the region.
Bolivia — The President Reaches for the Army
President Rodrigo Paz sent Congress a bill that would let the armed forces help clear the road blockades, calling any such action purely humanitarian. He said he may soon declare a state of exception, a day after his defence minister quit rather than order troops onto the streets.
Soldiers and police, about a thousand together, reopened a major route near Cochabamba and retook a gas plant that protesters had seized. The blockades have now lasted more than a month, left several people dead because they could not reach hospitals, and cost the economy more than 1.9 billion dollars.
Colombia — Trump Picks a Side
