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The conflict, which was intensified by long-simmering grievances over the government's economic coca eradication policies, and extreme corruption, as well as the abusive military policies came to a head in October 2003. Strikes and road blocks mounted by indigenous and labor groups brought the country to a standstill, eliciting violent repression by the Bolivian armed forces that left some seventy dead. The governing coalition disintegrated, forcing the president, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, to resign and leave the country on October 18. He was succeeded by the vice president, Carlos Mesa, who promised to put the gas issue to a referendum. Protesters say they will give Mesa a respite but threaten they will take to the streets again if he fails to address their demands.
The gas reserves were discovered in the mid-1990s and are located in the south-eastern province of Tarija, and are the second-largest in South America. To exploit the reserves, a consortium called Pacific LNG was formed by the British companies British Gas and British Petroleum, and Spain's Repsol-YPF. A plan costing some USD $6 billion was drawn up to build a pipeline to the PacificFor other meanings of pacific see pacific (disambiguation). The Pacific Ocean (from the Spanish Pacifico meaning peaceful is the world's largest body of water. It encompasses a third of the Earth's surface, having an area of 179. 7 million km² (69. 4 mill coast, where the gas would be processed and shipped to MexicoThis article is about the country Mexico. For other meanings, see Mexico (disambiguation The United Mexican States or Mexico ( Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or Mexico regarding the use of the variant spelling Mejico see section The name below) is a co and the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in. CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located in the western United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean. The most populous and third largest state in the U. California is both physically and demographically diverse. The state's official nickname is "The Golden State", wh, in particular, is a potentially big market for the gas, as it is planning to bring gas-fired power plants on-line in coming years to reduce emissions.
Government ministers point out the revenue from the gas will bolster the sagging Bolivian economy, and it will be invested exclusively in health and education. Opponents say the deal is a bad one for Bolivia; that the agreement with the consortium gives Bolivia only 18% of the future profits from the exportation of the gas and will only generate somewhere from $40 to $70 million per year. They further argue that exporting the gas will simply be the latest case of many centuries of exploitation of Bolivia's natural resources by foreigners, starting with silverThis page is about Silver the element. For the color, see Silver Silver is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Ag ( L. Argentum and atomic number 47. A soft white lustrous transition metal, silver has the highest electrical and th and goldFor alternative meanings, see gold (disambiguation Gold is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Au ( L. aurum and atomic number 79. A soft, shiny, yellow, heavy, malleable, ductile (trivalent and univalent) transition metal, gold d from the 17th century onward and tinThe word tin is often used to mean a can, even if it does not contain any tin metal. Tin is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Sn ( L. Stannum and atomic number 50. This silvery, malleable poor metal that is not easily oxidized i in the 20th century. They are demanding a plant be built to process the gas in Bolivia and that 250,000 homes be supplied with gas before any of it is exported.