The Police impeded from the start a march to the National Palace of a group that was protesting the new tax bills package of the government. The march began yesterday around 10 am at Parque Independencia and was to head up to Calle 30 de Marzo to the National Palace when it was forcibly disrupted by special operations policemen. About 100 people were arrested. The march was head by Ramon Almanzar, Manuel Salazar, Narciso Isa Conde, Ivan Rodriguez, who represent the Colectivo de Organizaciones Populares, Consejo de Unidad Popular, Central Nacional de Transportistas Unificados, Partido de la Fuerza de la Revolucion y Partido Nueva Alternativa and Partido Comunista del Trabajo. Several in the group are known to have promoted strikes in the past that led to practically nothing but work disruptions and losses of sales. This time the group wanted to hand in to the government a written evaluation of the first 100 days of the Mejía government with recommendations for the economy. Group spokesmen said they would visit the Congress to present the proposal. An editorial in Hoy newspaper commented that this and the showing of force at the Attorney General office against PLD former government officers that would hand a document to the Attorney General are both excesses in the use of force.
