At least nine people died yesterday as miners fighting for control of tin mines fought each other with dynamite in western Bolivia.
A presidential spokesman said eight deaths came during violent clashes between independent and state-employed miners in Huanuni, in the mineral-rich Oruro region. Media reports said a ninth miner died later in a hospital and that 60 were wounded.
The violence was ignited when independent miners tried to seize complete control of several state-owned tin mines, including Huanuni, one of the world's largest. The independent workers had been sharing work at the mine with state workers.
The army arrived in the late afternoon and cordoned off the mining town of Huanuni, in the high Andean plateau 175 miles southeast of La Paz, in an effort to quell the violence.
In the 1980s, Bolivia shut down dozens of mines and laid off 35,000 miners amid an economic crisis and low international prices for minerals.
With prices for minerals rising in the 1990s, the fired miners started exploiting idle mines and eventually formed powerful independent co-operatives now fighting for more control over Bolivia's plentiful mining resources.
Representatives of the centre-right opposition National Unity party called for the resignation of Interior Minister Alicia Munoz for not having sent the armed forces earlier to deter the violence.
The deaths came amid rising social tensions in Bolivia. The leftist government of President Evo Morales has negotiated an end to recent protests and road blockages over Indian rights, natural resources and land, and coca-leaf farming.
Late last month, state-paid miners blocked highways demanding more jobs in the Huanuni mine, halting the flow of vehicles through one of Bolivia's main trade routes for several days.
Miners helped push Mr Morales to a sweeping victory in the December 2005 election. The Morales government has pledged to revitalise the mining industry but has yet to announce its mining modernisation plan.