In Bolivia, massive protests in the city of El Alto has forced the government to announce it will cancel a contract with a French utility company that provides water to the city. The protesters accused the French company of charging excessive rates. The water protests comes almost exactly five years after similar protests began in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba. In that city, the popular revolt led to the ouster of Bechtel as the provider of the city’s water utilities. As the water protests have been taking place in El Alto, hundreds of thousands of Bolivians elsewhere in the country have taken to the streets to protest a government plan to raise gasoline prices.