Bolivia protesters bring country to standstill over election delays

Demonstrators allied to Evo Morales say authorities are using Covid-19 to delay vote

Demonstrators in Bolivia have dynamited Andean passes, scattered boulders across highways and dug trenches along rural roads to protest against repeated delays to a rerun of last October's deeply contentious election, which led to the downfall of the long-serving leftist president, Evo Morales.

Amid a mounting death toll from the coronavirus pandemic, more than 100 roadblocks and marches nationwide - convened on Monday by Bolivia's main workers' union, and indigenous and campesino movements allied to Morales's Movement Towards Socialism (Mas) - have brought the country to a standstill for six days.