LA PAZ, Bolivia, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people were stranded in a remote Bolivian village on Wednesday by peasants who blocked roadways to protest against the government's failure to tackle poverty. Rights workers, seeking to avoid a repeat of clashes that killed seven people rescued from a similar protest last week, were trying to mediate a peaceful end to the standoff in Luquisani, a village 125 miles (200 km) northeast of La Paz. "What we want to do is to find a way out that is not violent like on Saturday," said Sacha Llorenti, vice president of Bolivia's Human Rights Assembly. He said up to 350 had been stranded in Luquisani for more than a week by the roadblock. The blockade is the latest protest against President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in South America's poorest nation, where around two-thirds of the 8.3 million mostly indigenous population live in poverty. The government sent troops on Saturday to rescue 800 people, including 40 foreigners, stranded for a week in a nearby town by a similar protest. Seven people were killed during the rescue. Peasants are angry at the U.S.-backed eradication of illegal crops of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine, and against plans to export natural gas to the United States and Mexico. In February, a government bid to tax salaries in an International Monetary Fund-backed austerity drive triggered unrest in which 32 people were killed. One of the stranded men appealed to authorities to rescue the group, who had traveled to Luquisani for a religious festival, saying some were sick or hungry. "Someone come and rescue us, please," Humberto Rivera said. "When we tried to return to La Paz, we found the road was blocked by peasant farmers ... We then tried to return on foot, but they wouldn't let us." Government news agency ABI cited Interior Vice Minister Jose Luis Harb as saying the government was waiting to see the outcome of the rights group mediation before deciding whether to take "appropriate measures." Government and police officials were not immediately available to comment.
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