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2003-Black February

BLACK FEBRUARY / FIGHTS BETWEEN POLICE AND MILITARY TROOPS /

February 12, 2003 - After the mutiny of several police regiments in front of a "gasoline" imposed by the government and an altercation between police and military troops in the plaza of the Government Palace of La Paz, two days of chaos broke out, casualties and wounded among the military, police and civilians. On February 12, troops from the presidential regiment and police troops were shot, using machine guns, snipers, attacks and counter-attacks, unleashing a mini civil war spread a few blocks around the government palace. The then President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada knew then his first serious internal problem, precursor of the confrontations of the following year (2003) that ended in his abandonment of the country.

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