Bolivia declares martial law in protest-hit region

The Bolivian government declared martial law on Friday in a remote Amazon region where at least 15 people were killed in a wave of political violence sweeping the impoverished country.

The government banned protests and meetings in the far northern Pando region and said anyone carrying weapons would be arrested. Officials said six more bodies had been found following a clash in the area on Thursday.

"In Pando, it's been a real massacre," government minister Alfredo Rada told reporters, referring to violence between supporters of President Evo Morales and those of rightist provincial governors, who oppose his socialist reforms.

Sacha Llorenti, deputy minister for coordination of social movements said almost all of the dead were pro-government peasant farmers, ambushed by gunmen armed with machine guns.

Local television showed corpses being loaded onto a flatbed truck. Pando Sen. Abraham Cuellar said some bodies had been thrown into a river and that 20 people were still missing.

Reuters