Bolivian government says violent unrest is ‘down by half’ following ousting of former president Evo Morales

Bolivia’s interim government said Sunday that the violent demonstrations roiling the country were slowing, while peasant groups close to former president Evo Morales demanded provisional leader Jeanine Anez’s resignation.

The number of trouble spots is “down by half”, interim Interior Minister Arturo Murillo said.

The violence has claimed at least 23 lives and left scores injured since late October, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The protests that forced Morales to seek asylum in Mexico have continued, primarily around the central city of Cochabamba, where violent clashes erupted Friday between coca growers and both army troops and police. Nine people died, the IACHR reported, though the government has recognised only five of them.

Murillo angered opposition groups by suggesting that the coca growers might even have shot some of their own supporters to generate sympathy.