More than seven weeks of road blockades in Bolivia, led by the Bolivian Workers' Centre (COB, the country's largest union confederation) and allied campesino groups demanding President Rodrigo Paz's resignation, have left at least 16 people dead — 13 of them from lack of timely medical care caused by the road closures — and inflicted an estimated $2.76 billion in economic losses. The government called the COB to emergency dialogue on Wednesday, though the union had not confirmed attendance by midday, and blockade leaders warned that roadblocks would not be lifted pending a satisfactory government response. The COB has since dropped its demand for Paz's resignation but is pressing eight areas of reform, while the government insists it will negotiate only without preconditions and will not accept blockades or violence as leverage.