Bolivia's President Rodrigo Paz is facing an escalating political and social crisis as widespread protests and road blockades continue to paralyse large parts of Bolivia less than six months after he assumed office.
For nearly two weeks, demonstrators led by the powerful Bolivian Workers' Central (COB), peasant groups and mining unions have blocked major highways and access routes, effectively placing the political capital, La Paz, under severe strain. The disruptions have emptied food markets, interrupted fuel distribution and caused shortages of essential medical supplies, including oxygen for hospitals.
Government officials said at least three people died after emergency vehicles were unable to reach medical facilities due to the roadblocks. Tensions intensified on Monday when supporters of former president Evo Morales clashed with police in La Paz while joining broader demonstrations demanding Paz’s resignation. The unrest poses the gravest challenge so far for the centrist, business-friendly leader, who came to power amid a broader wave of conservative electoral victories across Latin America.
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“Those who seek to destroy democracy will end up in prison,” Paz warned on Friday, even as protests and blockades spread across much of the country.
The COB initially launched protests demanding higher wages, while peasant organisations called for a stable supply of gasoline amid worsening shortages.
Mining unions have separately pushed for access to additional mining territories, and public schoolteachers are negotiating salary hikes with the government.
Presidential spokesperson José Luis Gálvez claimed that many of the protesters’ concerns had already been partially addressed within the country’s current economic constraints. “However, there are dark forces attempting to destabilise our democracy,” he said, indirectly referring to Morales and his allies.
Paz has repeatedly argued that he inherited a ‘bankrupt state’, but critics accuse him of reacting too slowly to Bolivia’s worst economic crisis in four decades. The country has been battling severe fuel shortages and inflation that approached 20 per cent last year.
Business organisations estimate that the continuing demonstrations and transport blockades are costing Bolivia more than USD 50 million daily and have stranded around 5,000 vehicles along national highways.
Morales, once Bolivia’s dominant political figure, has played a central role in mobilising the latest protests from his stronghold in the country’s remote tropical region. He has remained there for nearly 18 months while avoiding an arrest warrant linked to allegations of sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl—accusations he insists are politically motivated.
The Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), which governed Bolivia for nearly two decades under Morales and later Luis Arce, suffered a major electoral setback in last year’s elections after a bitter split between the two former allies.
“The government and the right wing say I am politically finished and incapable of mobilising people, yet they continue blaming me for everything,” Morales wrote recently on X. “As long as structural issues such as fuel shortages, rising food prices and inflation remain unresolved, the uprising will continue,” he added.
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