schools and charitable institutions the diocese has 55 parishes, 80 churches and chapels, and 160 priests.
In 1999 and 2000, large-scale protests reversed the privatisation of the city's water supply.
In January 2007 city dwellers clashed with mostly rural protestors, leaving four dead and over 130 injured. The first ever democratically-elected Prefect of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa, had allied himself with the leaders of Bolivia's Eastern Departments in a dispute with President Evo Morales over regional autonomy and other political issues. The protestors blockaded the highways, bridges, and main roads, having days earlier set fire to the departmental seat of government, trying to force the resignation of Reyes Villa. Citizens attacked the protestors, breaking the blockade and routing them, while the police did little to stop the violence. Further attempts by the protestors to reinstate the blockade and threaten the government were unsuccessful, but the underlying tensions have not been resolved.
In July 2007, a monument erected by veterans of January's protest movement in honour of those killed and injured by government supporters was destroyed in the middle of the night, reigniting racial conflicts in the city.
In August 2008, a nationwide referendum was held, the prefect of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa, was not confirmed by the voters of the department
