The charismatic mining union leader Orlando Gutiérrez has died in Bolivia, days after he was beaten viciously by a fascist gang protesting the results of the Bolivian elections in which the left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) triumphed.

Gutiérrez’s death at just thirty-six years comes amid a surge in violence directed against the trade union and campesino movements in the wake of the coup last November. In August, the headquarters of the COB (Bolivian Workers’ Center), the trade union federation, in La Paz was bombed while recent months saw arrest warrants issued against syndicalists by the coup regime.

Gutiérrez was executive secretary of the FSTMB (Union Federation for Bolivian Mining Workers), the powerful miners’ union in Bolivia founded in 1944 which dominates the COB. He was tipped to be the new mining minister in the Arce government. Last week he was attacked by an anti-MAS gang which left him with serious injuries. He had been in intensive care in a hospital in La Paz for several days before he died. The police and the public ministry have now officially opened an investigation into his death. The FSTMB has declared ninety days of national mourning.