Bolivian Police Clash with Cancer Protest

Bolivians gather with the national flag.

Protests led by Bolivian cancer patients outside the “Casa Grande del Pueblo” resulted in a clash with local police on October 15. The protesters gathered outside the government building with posters made and chants ready in an attempt to call attention to the lack of adequate treatment for cancer patients. Many of these protestors were cancer patients themselves, and were accompanied by relatives in their demonstration. They demanded proper medical attention, and according to The Daily, chanted, “How many more of us have to die? How many more of us have to die? Evo Morales has no heart. Evo Morales has no heart.”

These protests were initially sparked in June by the temporary closure of the radiotherapy unit of the General Hospital in La Paz, Bolivia. According to The New Daily, this unit was run by the government, and was accessible to “people without resources and without health insurance.”

The closure of this unit, though temporary, puts poverty-stricken patients at risk. According to The New Daily, cancer patients explained that “treatment consists of holding parallel sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy” in order to yield the best results, and that “without one of them, the procedure is incomplete and the expense insipid.” They also reported that the reason for the temporary closure, as provided by The Departmental Health Service, was due to the radiotherapy equipment being “obsolete” and in need of restructuring.

In August, the Bolivian government made an agreement “to rent radiotherapy service and equipment,” including a “linear accelerator” to compensate for the closure of their own radiotherapy unit. However, many patients have stated that the rented service does not have the ability to support everyone, according to RC Bolivia.

In the first few weeks of October, the protests have gained momentum, resulting in an increased police presence. In the midst of the protests on October 15, the Bolivian Tactical Police Unit “violently evacuated patients,” using shields to push them from the government building. The representative of the patients, a man named Rosario Calle, stated, “We are dying day by day...we want an audience with the President, so he can listen to us and be moved by our pain,” according to RC Bolivia.

The police have yet to release a comment on this protest.