Miners clash with the police as they run from clouds of tear gas during protests
Rodolfo Illanes, the Bolivian deputy government minister of Interior has been brutally murdered.
Officials have revealed that the man was allegedly killed by striking miners after he travelled to the area to mediate in the bitter conflict over mining laws.
According to The Telegraph, government minister Carlos Romero called it a "cowardly and brutal killing" and asked the miners to hand over the body of deputy minister Illanes.
Earlier, Mr Romero said that Illanes had been kidnapped and possibly tortured, but local media reports that he had been killed by the miners had not been confirmed.
But on Thursday Mr Romero and Reymi Ferreira, defence minister, said that the vice minister of government had been beaten to death by the miners, who are demanding more rights, including the right to associate with private companies.
The Telegraph reports that Illanes had gone to Panduro, a town 80m (130km) south of the La Paz, where the strikers have blockaded a highway since Monday, to open discussions.
Thousands of passengers and vehicles are stranded on roads blocked by the strikers. The government had earlier said that the 56-year-old Illanes had been kidnapped and was at risk of being tortured.
The strike has turned violent recently with two protesters being killed and riot police failing to clear a highway in a western part of the mining-dependent Andean nation.
"We have been able to see close up that vice minister Illanes was dead. Colleagues told us that he had died of a beating," Moises Flores, the director of a mining radio station had told local radio.
The National Federation of Mining Cooperatives of Bolivia (FENCOMIN), once strong allies of leftist president Evo Morales, began what they said would be an indefinite protest after negotiations over mining legislation failed.
Protesters have been demanding more mining concessions, the right to work for private companies, and greater union representation.
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