In Bolivia, police fired tear gas to clear thousands of anti-coup protesters from the streets of La Paz Wednesday as low-flying fighter jets roared overhead in a show of force. The protesters were rejecting right-wing opposition leader Jeanine Áñez, who declared herself interim president Tuesday night. The police and military have killed at least 10 protesters since Morales’s ouster, with many more injured.
Protester: “The authorities nearly choked me! They nearly choked me, but I am going to continue. Bolivia is indigenous!”
On Wednesday, Jeanine Áñez swore in a new Cabinet and military leaders at the presidential palace in La Paz. Meanwhile, police barred lawmakers with Morales’s Movement for Socialism party from entering Bolivia’s parliamentary assembly. Morales was elected in 2005 as Bolivia’s first indigenous president. He says that after Sunday’s coup, armed men broke into his home in Cochabamba and led an arson attack on his sister’s home, as well.