Bolivia Amazon natives resume protest after crackdown

Bolivian natives angry over plans to build a highway through an Amazon nature preserve resumed their protest march Saturday after a violent police crackdown a week ago, a top demo leader said. The march began at daybreak in the town of Quiquibey, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of La Paz, protest leader Rafael Quispe told AFP. Quispe said that the hundreds of protesters were moving toward the capital at a speed of around 20 kilometers (12 miles) a day. Bolivian authorities have been trying to tamp down the uproar that erupted when riot police fired tear gas and arrested hundreds of activists who had been marching for a month on September 25. Bolivia's defense minister Cecilia Chacona resigned over the incident, followed by interior minister Sacha Llorenti. Migration chief Maria Rene Quiroga has also stepped down, calling the crackdown "unforgivable." Morales, the country's first elected indigenous president, suspended plans to build the road on Monday, and on Wednesday publicly apologized for the violence. The protests and crackdown fallout present a major challenge for Morales, who has said the 300-kilometer (186-mile) highway is vital for the country's economic development. The Brazil-financed road would run through the Isiboro Secure preserve, home to some 50,000 natives from three different indigenous groups. Amazon natives also fear the road will bring landless Andean Quechua and Aymara people -- Bolivia's main indigenous groups and Morales supporters -- into their region to colonize the land. The road is part of a network linking land-locked Bolivia to the Pacific Ocean through Chile and the Atlantic Ocean through Brazil.