La Paz, Bolivia – For three weeks, Bolivia has been paralyzed by the largest wave of social unrest since President Rodrigo Paz took office in November. The Bolivian Highway Administration has reported dozens of road blockade points across the country, severing key arteries to the Peruvian and Chilean borders, Sucre, Oruro, Potosí, and Santa Cruz. There are severe food and diesel shortages in La Paz, with inflation rising fast, and hospitals being pushed to the brink due to lack of medical supplies.
The protesters, in the tens of thousands, include members of the Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB) trade union, rural teachers’ unions, mining cooperatives, coca growers’ federations, and indigenous communities from the Amazon who walked hundreds of kilometres to reach La Paz. They also include the Red Ponchos — a radical Aymara militia and social movement for indigenous rights most active in the high plains (Altiplano), gaining prominence in the 2003 Gas War. They are known for using direct action, such as blockades and clashes with state forces.
What are the root causes of the unrest?
The crisis did not appear from nowhere. Recurring fuel shortages – the same chronic problem that had contributed to the collapse of the socialist Arce government – returned to rattle an already fragile economy, along with sweeping economic cuts, including to fuel and food subsidies.
But the larger trigger was Law 17-20, a measure that would authorize reforms to indigenous land tenure arrangements, which many communities interpreted as opening the door to the privatization of communal lands.
Many of the protesters themselves voted for President Paz, and the regions most affected: La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba, are the same ones that delivered him his electoral majority.
“We voted for change, for Capitalism for All, but we’re in the same place as before, only maybe worse,” one protester named Patricia told Latin America Reports in El Alto.
“They made promises to us, about social rights and economic progress, and then acted like they forgot we existed,” said Fernando, a member of a Cochabamba peasant federation told Latin America Reports.
Graffiti quote inscribed by protesters reading, “May there be no peace for the oligarchies, if there is no bread for the majority.” Image credit: Joseph Bouchard
They have multiple grievances, including a cabinet with little meaningful indigenous, female or movement representation, the absence of consultation with social organizations on major legislative decisions, cuts to fuel subsidies and social services whose effects have been felt immediately in communities already stretched thin by years of economic crisis, and a failure to address the structural commercial and energy crises that preceded Paz’s election.
On a more structural level, many syndicalist and indigeneist movements that had long been associated with the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) made a deliberate and politically costly decision to back Paz over former socialist president Evo Morales’s old party last year. They feel that they have been betrayed, and left out.
Protesters lined up by the Plaza San Francisco in downtown La Paz. Image credit: Joseph Bouchard
The government’s response
For its part, the Paz government has pursued a strategy of selective negotiation combined with escalating pressure on those who refuse to leave the streets. It has reached agreements with certain teachers’ unions and regional COB affiliates, and issued decrees guaranteeing healthcare, education, and other rights to indigenous communities.
Some factions have accepted these terms, though others have accused them of capitulating, or being co-opted by the government. One leader of the COB argued from La Paz, “They are doing the same strategy as the MAS under the previous regime, they are co-opting social movements to delegitimize our demands and our concerns, and paint us as insubordinate and ungrateful.”
Paz has promised a cabinet reshuffle, along with an economic social council, in an attempt to “listen to the people” and provide further representation for aggrieved social sectors.
The Paz government has deployed thousands of police in La Paz and El Alto to resist and dismantle blockades, using tear gas, riot gear, and rubber bullets, apprehending at least 100 according to the People’s Ombudsman, including journalists. Three have died so far, with many more injured.
Senior officials, including cabinet members, have publicly accused blockade leaders of being financed by Evo Morales and linked to drug trafficking and terrorism.
Paz himself has referred to those still demonstrating in the streets as “vandals,” and the state security apparatus has warned it will use “progressive and proportional force” — with persistent rumours, denied by the government, of authorization for live ammunition.
Human rights organizations and the COB leadership have denounced the targeting of union leaders and the harassment of the press and activists. Former president Evo Morales has alleged that the Paz government, in coordination with the DEA and US Southern Command, is planning an operation to detain or kill him.
Protesters wait to join the frontlines as tear gas accumulates near the Plurinational Assembly. Image Credit: Joseph Bouchard
The impact on Paz’s presidency
The crisis is exposing deep tensions within Paz’s own Christian Democratic Party (PDC) big tent coalition, which brought together an ideologically eclectic mix of figures — from indigeneist currents previously aligned with the MAS, and populist actors, to more conventionally conservative actors such as former president Tuto Quiroga, multimillionaire former minister Samuel Doria Medina, and prominent figures in right-wing stronghold Santa Cruz. That coalition is straining.
Vice President Edmand Lara, a populist anti-corruption figure and former police officer whom social movements had embraced and whose support is widely credited with being decisive in Paz’s election victory, has issued multiple statements breaking with the president’s handling of the crisis.
Lara condemned the use of chemical agents against elderly people, pregnant women, and children, called on security forces to respect proportionality protocols, denounced the intimidation of journalists, and invited the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to monitor the situation. Political analysts in La Paz are openly speculating that Lara is positioning himself as the social movements’ candidate for the presidency, should Paz’s government fall.
On the more conservative flank, Paz’s allies are urging a harder line. Proposals include a state of emergency, tighter control of what they characterize as violent paid agitators, and continued carrot-and-stick approaches to willing and unwilling sectors. Which tendency wins the internal argument will likely define the character of the Paz government going forward, if it can survive it.
Protesters retreat as tear gas descends into commercial streets in downtown La Paz. Image credit: Joseph Bouchard
International response to the protests
Internationally, the crisis has also created further divisions. Leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in a series of posts on social media, described the protests as “a popular insurrection” against “geopolitical arrogance” and declared that “Bolivia stands at the forefront of the struggle for Latin American dignity.” He also offered Colombian mediation for the crisis.
Bolivia’s foreign minister, Fernando Aramayo, responded by expelling Colombia’s ambassador, Elizabeth García, declaring her persona non grata for what he called “insistent public declarations of interference in Bolivia’s internal affairs.” Paz called it an “attack on democracy.”
Read more: Bolivia dismisses Colombia ambassador after Petro comments
The conservative bloc in Latin America has lined up firmly behind Paz. Among others, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and the United States have characterized the protests as destabilizing and linked them to drug trafficking. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the unrest as a “coup attempt,” adding that “we will not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow democratically elected governments,” which protesters say are racist echoes of the country’s long history with the war on drugs and U.S. intervention.
Argentina, meanwhile, reportedly sent military aircraft, officially carrying food and medicine, that are alleged by protest groups to also contain tear gas and crowd-control equipment, a charge Buenos Aires has denied. The OAS Security Council has convened an emergency session on Bolivia.
Demands from protesters
The protesters’ demands range from specific sectoral issues, like better conditions for teachers, guaranteed rights for indigenous communities, to more sweeping demands including Paz’s resignation and, for Evo Morales, fresh democratic elections within 90 days. Evo Morales, the COB, and Red Ponchos have stated they will not stop fighting.
The unfolding unrest is becoming a sharp test for Paz, and Bolivia’s democracy. Based on Bolivia’s history, the social movements in the streets, as they are acutely aware, have brought down governments before, and are in no hurry to leave. For now, the blockades continue in Bolivia.
Featured Image: Red Ponchos throw stones at functionaries and police at the Judiciary building in La Paz.
Image credit: Joseph Bouchard