Drivers in Bolivia ended a strike Friday after winning a pledge from President Carlos Mesa to freeze fuel prices until December. The drivers went on strike Wednesday to demand that a 60-day price freeze be extended for 100 days. Strikers set up road blockades and carried out marches, forcing a standstill of activities in both the capital La Paz and the nearby workers city of El Alto. Even Mesa stayed home to work rather than go to the executive building. Clashes between police and protesters left two police and two civilians injured. About 20 protesters were arrested. A driver's leader, Franklin Duran, said the freeze until December "was all that could be negotiated". The drivers had originaly sought a one-year freeze on the prices of petrol and diesel. In October last year massive street protests by workers, indigenous groups and miners over a natural gas export plan led to the downfall of former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Nearly 60 people were killed when security forces tried to disperse protests. Following Sanchez de Lozada's resignation, then vice president Mesa took on as president.
