Community leader Mirko Orgaz told Efe that groups of Camiri residents had gathered at one of the oil fields in the area managed by Andina, the affiliate of Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF, to occupy it and prevent workers from getting access to the site.
The dialogue between the government and Camiri leaders broke down on Saturday after several hours of talks.
Orgaz said that if the government did not meet their demands, the local residents were going to ask for the expulsion of all foreign companies operating in the Bolivian petroleum sector.
The protest in Camiri, which was Bolivia's oil capital in past decades, began last Wednesday with local residents blocking highways linking the area with Argentina and Paraguay, roads that still remained blocked on Sunday, Orgaz said.
On Friday, the army moved in to try and open the blocked roads, creating a confrontation with the villagers that ended with more than 20 people being injured on both sides.
The residents of Camiri are demanding that Morales create an effective oil nationalization policy beginning with the state's recovery of three oil fields in the region operated by the Repsol affiliate.
In addition, they are demanding that new jobs be created for Camiri residents and that an oil exploration and exploitation office of the state-run energy firm YPFB be set up in the area, Orgaz said.
Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Villegas is a member of the government commission that has been in the area since last Friday to try and put an end to the conflict.
Villegas told Erbol radio on Sunday that the talks broke down "abuptly" when the government explained to the Camiri negotiators that their demand for the creation of 1,000 local jobs linked to oil production activities in the region "is unacceptable."
The minister said that the sector only generates 1,200 jobs nationwide.
He also said that the YPFB exploration and exploitation administration that Camiri residents are demanding is already operating and he also recalled that the government this past week approved a decree to retake control over Andina and three other firms before April 30.
Villegas expressed his readiness to resume the dialogue with the Camiri residents in the coming hours to discuss "sensitive demands." EFE
mb/bp
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