BOLIVIA: An unemployed miner with dynamite strapped to his body blew himself up inside Bolivia's parliament on Monday, killing two police officers and injuring 10 more. Eustaquio Pichacuri, out of work since 1986, entered parliament at midday with a backpack full of explosives, demanding an immediate solution to his long-standing quarrel over pension contributions, writes Michael McCaughan in Caracas
Bolivian legislators left the building as police officers and social security officials negotiated the man's demand for retirement benefits. The issue was passed on from one civil servant to the next until finally the director of pensions told the angry citizen that nothing could be done to help him.
An hour later Pichacuri detonated the explosives.
"There was no political motivation in this desperate act," said Mr Hormando Vaca Diez, president of Bolivia's parliament, anxious to play down the incident.
"This was no isolated act," countered Mr Miguel Zubieta, general secretary of Bolivia's National Union of Miners, who said there were 2,000 more miners in exactly the same situation as Pichacuri. The miners' union had planned to seize parliament peacefully this week, but one miner said Pichacuri had advised colleagues of his scheme.
Pichacuri was one of thousands of miners made redundant in 1985 when Special Decree 21060 came into effect, ushering in an era of privatisation and reduced social spending.
Pichacuri, who worked for 15 years in the country's biggest mine, had sufficient contributions to qualify for a pension but was excluded from the benefit programme due to his age.
Last October, Bolivian miners joined indigenous and farmer organisations in street protests which forced the resignation of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Interim President Carlos Mesa has pursued a strategy of reconciliation with militant opposition groups, dispatching Mr Evo Morales, leader of the coca farmers, to seek economic aid in nearby Venezuela.
Latin-American governments fear that the worldwide attention given to suicide attacks in Iraq and Israel may encourage dissidents in this part of the world to adopt the same methods.
Colombian security forces arrested a FARC rebel leader known as The Muslim last week, as he allegedly concluded the training of 22 FARC suicide bombers planning attacks on strategic targets.