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Mesa announced his resignation only hours earlier as his 19-month-old free-market government unraveled amid swelling street protests and a crippling blockade of the capital. But demonstrators said that wasn't enough and demanded early elections.Indians, including women in bowler hats and ruffled skirts, joined miners brandishing sticks of dynamite, coca leaf farmers, students and others who had filed into the capital from the satellite city of El Alto. Similar marches Monday drew more than 100,000 people and led to rolling clashes between riot police firing tear gas and violent fringe groups armed with slingshots and wooden clubs.
"Companeros, move forward!" one of the protest leaders shouted Tuesday morning as Indian, labor and leftist student groups advanced down winding mountain roads into the city of 1 million people.
Soon, dynamite blasts rumbled downtown as riot police fired back with canisters of tear gas that wafted over the demonstrators.
Tens of thousands of protesters had advanced in two major prongs on the capital, paralyzed by weeks of street blockades, food shortages and a day-old public transport strike amid the standoff between white ruling elites and protesters wanting a greater say in Bolivia's national affairs.
Mesa's resignation, if accepted by Congress, could ultimately usher in new elections, raising the prospect of Bolivia becoming the seventh Latin American country to move to a leftist government suspicious of U.S. intentions in the region.