BOLIVIAN TIN MINERS START HUNGER STRIKE
About 9,000 miners employed by the
state corporation Comibol went on hunger strike to press for
higher wages, a miners union spokesman said.
     Victor Lopez, executive secretary of the miners union,
told a news conference the strikers began to fast in the major
tin mining districts of oruro and potosi and the action would
spread tomorrow to la paz and other areas.
     The government has charged that the strike by the miners
union, crippled by massive layoffs, is part of a left-wing
destabilisation plan to coincide with the visit of West German
president Richard von Weizsaecker, who arrives on a four-day
official tour on Friday.
     But miners union chief Simon Reyes told reporters the
strike had nothing to do with subversion and was to press for
more government investment in Comibol.
     The government of president Victor Paz Estenssoro has
streamlined the deficit-ridden state mining corporation laying
off about 20,000 miners, two-thirds of the workforce, following
a collapse of the international tin price in 1985.
 Reuter
