Thousands of peasants and workers demonstrated on Monday demanding that former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada be tried for the deaths of more than 50 people during the suppression of the protests that brought down his government one year ago. As the demonstrators marched, Sanchez de Lozada said in a a statement issued from his exile in the United States: «Although I am prepared to face justice like any other Bolivian citizen, it must be done with due process of law.» The protesters, many of whom marched from cities near La Paz, chanted slogans demanding that Sanchez de Lozada be tried and jailed. They also demanded the nationalization of Bolivia's oil industry. The protests last October, which erupted against Sanchez de Lozada's plan to export Bolivia's natural gas reserves, left 56 people killed. The Bolivian congress voted last week to put Sanchez de Lozada on trial along with 15 former ministers in his government. The vote was necessary because they have immunity from prosecution because of the posts they held. In his statement Monday, Sanchez de Lozada said that vote was the result of mob pressure.
