Changes

==== Miners Laid Off ====Within the first year of the Paz Estenssoro presidency, 8,000 miners were laid off or paid $500 to retire early.<ref>Kathryn Leger, "Bolivian miners stage hunger strikes to protest mine closures," Christian Science Monitor, September 17, 1986.</ref> One year later, the government announced mine closings as part of a plan to restructure the state mining company(COMIBOL). The price of tin had fallen from $5.50 a pound to $2.50 a pound in the last year, and the government said it could not afford to continue operating the mines or paying the miners' salaries of $30 per month(about $1 per day). On August 28, 1986, as more than 7000 miners and their supporters headed for La Paz in a 142-mile protest march, President Paz declared a "state of seige." "The military was called in to prevent the marchers from reaching La Paz. Some were arrested and taken to jungle internment camps. Others were returned home by truck."<ref>Kathryn Leger, "Bolivian miners stage hunger strikes to protest mine closures," Christian Science Monitor, September 17, 1986.</ref> In response, on September 9, some 2000 miners went on a hunger strike. The pledged to continue the strike until the mine leaders were released from prison. Many laid off miners and their families moved to the Chapare region, where the economy revolves around producing [[coca]] for cocaine. By December 1986, it was announced that seven or eight of [[COMIBOL]]'s 21 mining companies would be maintained, but in reduced, decentralized forms. Two would be phased out, and two would become cooperatives.<ref>Bradley Graham, "Bolivia Cuts Back Tin Production; State to Shut Huge Mine in Bid to Remold Economy," The Washington Post, December 2, 1986.</ref> The plan would lay off over two-thirds of the nation's miners. Already, 12,500 of the 27,500 miners had left in the last year. Another 7,000 would be laid off, leaving only 8,000.