Bolivia Gasoline
A man rides a bicycle past a car burned during a protest against fuel hikes in El Alto, Bolivia, Thursday, Dec. 30. 2010. People protested against a ...
A man rides a bicycle past a car burned during a protest against fuel hikes in El Alto, Bolivia, Thursday, Dec. 30. 2010. People protested against a 73 percent jump in gasoline prices and 83 percent rise in the price of diesel. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Bolivia Gasoline
Firefighters inspect debris from a tollbooth burned during a protest against fuel hikes in El Alto, Bolivia, Thursday, Dec. 30. 2010. People proteste...
Firefighters inspect debris from a tollbooth burned during a protest against fuel hikes in El Alto, Bolivia, Thursday, Dec. 30. 2010. People protested against a 73 percent jump in gasoline prices and 83 percent rise in the price of diesel. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Bolivia Gasoline
People walk past a car set on fire during a protest against fuel hikes in El Alto, Bolivia, Thursday, Dec. 30. 2010. People protested against a 73 pe...
People walk past a car set on fire during a protest against fuel hikes in El Alto, Bolivia, Thursday, Dec. 30. 2010. People protested against a 73 percent jump in gasoline prices and 83 percent rise in the price of diesel. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Bolivia Gasoline
People, one waving a Bolivian flag, demonstrate during a protest against fuel hikes in El Alto, Bolivia, Thursday, Dec. 30. 2010. People protested ag...
People, one waving a Bolivian flag, demonstrate during a protest against fuel hikes in El Alto, Bolivia, Thursday, Dec. 30. 2010. People protested against a 73 percent jump in gasoline prices and 83 percent rise in the price of diesel. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)
Protests are intensifying in Bolivia against a sharp increase in fuel prices.
Thousands of demonstrators marched Thursday in the fifth day of protests across the Andean country, as bus drivers maintain a strike that paralyzed at least four cities.
The price increases by Bolivian President Evo Morales' government have led to a 73 percent jump in gasoline prices and an 83 percent rise in the price of diesel.
Prices had been frozen for six years, but the government said it can no longer afford to subsidize them, especially since much is smuggled across the border to neighboring countries.