ANTI-GOVERNMENT roadblocks that have isolated Bolivia’s capital La Paz and other major cities were still being cleared today.

It comes a day after President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency that was later overwhelmingly ratified by parliament.

Although road blockades have been suspended across much of the country, they continue in parts of the Cochabamba region, led by coca growers’ unions.

Security forces, which have been clearing highways since Saturday, have not entered Chapare, where road blockades remained in place on Sunday.

But one of the largest rural unions behind the road blockades that had strangled La Paz on Saturday called on protesters to withdraw until next week to assess the situation following the declaration of a state of emergency.

Business groups estimate losses at more than $2 billion (£1.4bn), while cities were left short of fuel and food, further complicating the country’s fragile economic recovery as it faces its worst economic crisis in four decades.

The state of emergency will last 90 days, but could be lifted earlier if “violence and threats against the population come to an end,” the government said in a statement on Saturday.