WORKERS in Bolivia staged mass demonstrations today against an anti-government “bosses’ lockout” organised by far-right forces.

Footage showed armed fascist gangs asking God to take their side as they started the action in protest at the Movement Towards Socialism-led government.

But thousands of counter-protesters took to the streets in the Plan 3000 area of Santa Cruz, vowing to remove any roadblocks set up by opposition groupings that called the 24-hour strike.

The lockout was called by the Civic Committees, a coalition of corporate leaders, large landowners and powerful families, to destabilise Bolivia as part of a bid to oust the democratically elected government.

Far-right Santa Cruz Governor Fernando Camacho wrote to all local authority workers last week ordering them to attend anti-government protests, saying they would be sacked if they failed to comply.

Mr Camacho, who faces charges over his involvement in the 2019 Washington-backed coup that ousted president Evo Morales, denied that the strike had a political objective, insisting it merely aimed “to defend people and liberty.”

But the tactics, which the opposition figure also deployed during the 2019 coup, were rejected by the working class of Bolivia, which stood firm in defence of President Luis Arce.

The COB trade union confederation said in a statement: “The country’s social movements are not going to allow destabilisation attempts. We are not going to allow the right-wing whites from Santa Cruz destabilise our government once again.”

Demonstrations in defence of the wiphala indigenous flag and the progressive government will take place across the country tomorrow.

They were called by Mr Morales in response to the flag being torn down by supporters of Mr Camacho last month, minutes after it had been raised at a ceremony in Santa Cruz to mark the 211th anniversary of the city’s liberation.