New Delhi, Dec. 23 -- Bolivian miners marched in downtown La Paz, the country's capital, and union-organized protesters took to the streets elsewhere on Monday, the first day of a strike over the government's scrapping of fuel subsidies that have been blamed for contributing to dollar shortages and economic turmoil.

The protests were called for by Bolivia's Central Union of Workers but many trade groups, including transportation workers, did not join the rallies. Some union leaders said they would go along with the elimination of the subsidies, which had been in place for almost two decades.

Bolivia's centrist President Rodrigo Paz, who took office on Nov. 8, ended the fuel subsidy that previous left-wing governments had maintained for ...