--- title: "Bolivia is F**ked: How a Center-Right President Ignited a National Crisis" description: "\"We want the government to solve this problem, to fix it once and for all (...) the babies are starving; we can't afford to buy food. We seniors no longer have the money to buy food. I'm asking for a solution.\"\n\nThose words, spoken by a protester in an interview with Reuters, perfectly captured the mood in Bolivia, where since late April, a large coalition made up of farmers, miners, teachers, trade unionists and people generally opposed to the government of President Rodrigo Paz, has taken to the streets to demand for change.\n\nWhat began as a localized protest by small scale farmers, quickly swelled drawing in tens of thousands all over the country. By May, the capital city La Paz, which ironically means the peace in Spanish, was a warzone. Police in riot gear shooting tear gas at protesters, the protesters lobbing the teargas back at the police, alongside stones, and explosives. By the end of May, seven people had died, and scores more had been injured.\n\nThe protests have almost brought the country to its knees, with France 24 reporting that there are severe food, fuel, and medicine shortages in urban centers. The president recently warned that the country was at the breaking point, while the United States has warned of a possible coup d'etat.\n\nSo…as Bolivia teeters on the brink, we have to ask…how did we get here? And where will events go next? In short: is Bolivia f**ked?\n\n## A Horrible Christmas\n\nBefore we begin, a little bit of housekeeping, all of the information in this article is up to date as of the time of writing on Wednesday at around 11 am Central European Time. We say this, because after a brief lull earlier in the week, the protests went a little crazy again, with the defense minister resigning late last night, so who knows where things might stand by the time you read this.\n\nBut for now, we first need to discuss how Bolivia got itself into this mess. And to do that, we need to mention one key fact about the country.\n\nFor the past two decades, Bolivia has been governed by a succession of left wing governments, most notably that of Evo Morales, who ruled from 2006 to 2019. He nationalized energy resources, broke ties with Washington, and made alliances with Russia and China, as well as leftist governments across the region, including Venezuela and Cuba.\n\nMorales's presidency was also rife with controversy. He had a secret affair with businesswoman Gabriela Zapata, who, through her connections to the presidency, secured multi-million dollar government contracts for a Chinese engineering company. Other than run of the mill corruption, critics accused him of contributing to Bolivia's democratic backsliding.\n\nThat wave of left wing rule ended in October 2025 when the nation elected a pro-business center-right senator, Rodrigo Paz, as their new president.\n\nPaz, the son of a former president, secured 54% of the vote on the back of a platform that called for capitalism for all. He promised economic decentralization, lower taxes, fiscal discipline and continued spending on social programs.\n\nFor a country that was in the midst of an economic crisis, where the central bank was all but out of dollars, rampant fuel shortages were the order of the day, and annual inflation was over 20%, his policies felt like a welcome change. And that was reflected in the massive crowds that gathered in La Paz to celebrate his victory with fireworks, music, and a lot of hope.\n\nBut by December, just two short months after being elected, the man who many had proclaimed the saviour of Bolivia was dealing with his first major political crisis.\n\nOn the 18th of December, Paz signed Supreme Decree 5503, eliminating fuel subsidies that had been in place for roughly two decades and were one of the popular policy holdovers of the leftist regime. Despite its popularity, Paz insisted that it had to go because it didn't make economic sense. Bolivia was buying gasoline at international prices, and selling it at a fraction of the cost, which, according to Paz, was costing the government $10 million a day and only benefiting smugglers who resold the subsidized fuel in Bolivia and abroad. To soften the blow, Paz paired the elimination of the subsidies with a 20% increase in the national minimum wage, setting it at about $477 a month.\n\nBut none of that mattered to ordinary Bolivians. Gasoline prices rose by 86%, diesel by more than 160%, and because Bolivia imports most of the fuel it consumes, these price increases had an immediate ripple effect on nearly every sector of the economy. Transport costs in several regions nearly doubled overnight, and food prices skyrocketed. Edson Valdez, a leader of a local transportation union, told the AP that the government had given the people the worst Christmas present.\n\nDefinitely not the ringing endorsement that Paz had hoped for in his first Christmas in office.\n\nYou can pretty much guess what happened next.\n\nThe country's biggest trade union, the Bolivian Workers' Center, known by the Spanish acronym (COB) organized a major strike against the removal of the subsidies. However, turnout was a lot lower than the organizers expected, because the government had moved quickly to split the usual protest coalition. La Paz offered the bus drivers union the right to import auto parts duty free, meaning that vehicle repairs would be a lot cheaper. This, and the 20% minimum wage increase, denied the COB the usual numbers that it would have had at such a protest.\n\nThat's not to say they weren't effective with the numbers that they did have. The miners set off sticks of dynamite, launched fireworks at the police, and generally made the entire situation so untenable that Paz had to make a deal. The deal eliminated the fuel subsidies, but dropped a contentious provision that had allowed the government to fast-track investment projects and privatize public assets without full legislative approval.\n\nIn short: Paz survived this first wave of unrest with his core policy priority intact, but the fact that the COB had extracted concessions left him looking weak and vulnerable.\n\nAnd come April, that vulnerability would once again be tested.\n\nOn the 8th of April, Bolivia's congress passed law 1720, a land reform measure the Paz government framed as a pathway to rural credit. Under the law, small agricultural landholdings could be voluntarily reclassified as medium-sized properties, making them eligible as collateral for bank loans. The government saw this as a way of providing small scale farmers with credit at lower interest rates from institutional lenders.\n\nBut that's not how farmers themselves saw it. By reclassifying their smallholdings as medium-sized properties, they would lose the legal protections that had historically shielded them from land seizures, and many believed eviction was the inevitable next step. Roger Chambi, a lawyer and expert in indigenous land law, told Jacobin that the law would facilitate the transfer of land to large corporations. In a country where more than 25% of the population is employed in agriculture, much of that small scale agriculture, that fear soon transformed into action.\n\nOn the same day the new law was passed, about 300 people began marching from Pando in the North to El Paz, a journey that would take them 27 days, and see them cover more than 1,000 kilometers. They arrived in the capital on the 4th of May, and held a sit-in in front of the Vice President's office having been barred from entering the Chamber of Deputies to present their petition.\n\nThat march, and the sit in that followed, was a portent of what would come next.\n\n## A Country On Its Knees\n\nFor the farmers and indigenous activists, the sit-in proved successful as the government agreed to repeal law 1720 on the 13th of May.\n\nHowever, unlike in January, this didn't stop the protests.\n\nThat's because there were a lot more people on the streets, each with their own disparate set of demands that couldn't be easily addressed by repealing one law.\n\nOn the 1st of May, the COB had called for an indefinite general strike until the government met their demands, which included a further 20% increase to the minimum wage, higher pay for teachers, and the creation of a state funded single free public education system. The miners also had a separate list of demands, including greater access to explosives and fuel, and the implementation of mining regulations. Apart from the economic demands, there were those who felt that Paz had gone back on the campaign promises that had won their vote. He hadn't appointed a single indigenous or working class person to his cabinet or to other key positions within the government.\n\nKathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, told Democracy Now, quoting her here, \"There's a huge break between what Paz promised and what he's done in practice, which is select a white, upper-middle-class Cabinet, reject any genuine dialogue (...) or even have any empathy for people and what they're going through day to day.\"\n\nThe protests grew exponentially and by the 12th of May, the police were reporting that there were 67 active roadblocks across the country, restricting the flow of food and fuel to La Paz. Three people reportedly died after emergency vehicles were blocked from reaching medical centers.\n\nIn an attempt to quell public anger, Paz announced, on the 20th of May, that he would reshuffle his cabinet, and five days later he announced that his salary, and those of his cabinet ministers would be cut in half.\n\nPredictably, this changed nothing on the street, with people still protesting and blocking the roads.\n\nSo Paz tried a different tactic. He deployed a convoy of about 2,000 police and military personnel in 150 vehicles with the goal of clearing the highway that linked Paz to Oruro, the nation's fifth largest city, to allow food, fuel, and other critical supplies to reach the capital. The convoy was attacked en route to its destination, forcing the police and the military to retreat. These attacks angered Paz so much that within days, both chambers of Bolivia's Congress voted overwhelmingly to repeal a 2020 law which placed significant restrictions on the Executive's ability to declare a state of emergency.\n\nThe vote cleared both chambers in under 48 hours, with deputies meeting virtually because blockades had cut off physical access to La Paz. Paz signed it into law on May 27th, giving him the legal cover to deploy the army against the protesters, which, at the time of writing, he is yet to do.\n\nBy the 27th, though, the various disparate demands on the streets had coalesced into one concrete demand: the protesters wanted Paz to resign.\n\nFrom the outside looking in, it's tempting to see the Bolivian protests, and the calls for the president's resignation, as simply an outpouring of anger against unpopular decisions that the government has made. And while the protesters *do* have a lot of things to be angry about, we can't ignore the political undercurrents running through most of the protests.\n\nUndercurrents that lead to one man, former president Evo Morales.\n\nNow, as we mentioned earlier, Morales ruled Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. What we didn't mention is that he has long sought to return to power despite being constitutionally barred from running for elected office again. Something else we should mention is that since 2024, Morales has been a fugitive from justice hiding in Chapare, a coca growing region where he maintains strong support. He is being tried for human trafficking, specifically for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old girl while he was president.\n\nDespite these controversies, Morales has retained a strong base of support among the country's indigenous peoples and working class. Unsurprisingly, the former president has come out in support of the protests, writing on social media that, as long as the people's demands remained unaddressed, the uprising would not be quelled.\n\nAnalysts told NPR that despite his fiery rhetoric, Morales didn't have the ability to rally mass support, and was instead using the protests as a way to evade justice.\n\nThis assessment hasn't stopped the Paz government from blaming Morales for organizing the unrest in a bid to undermine the government. While this blame game hasn't been enough to quell the protests, it has been enough to rally support for Morales both locally, among his supporters, and internationally, among ideologically aligned nations.\n\nThe question now is: will these protests peter out as time goes by, or are things about to get even more dramatic?\n\n## What Next?\n\nWhen trying to figure out where Bolivia goes next, the answer depends on who you ask. Most protesters would say that they want to see Paz and his entire government resign, while Paz's supporters would insist that he be allowed to serve his full term in office.\n\nIf you were to ask most Latin America observers, they would lean heavily towards Paz remaining in office, even if the protests continue to intensify.\n\nThe main reason for this is Washington.\n\nPaz has Uncle Sam's full support with one official describing the protests as an attempted coup financed by the unholy alliance between organized crime and politics that's active throughout the region. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was even more emphatic in his support, writing on X that Washington would not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow a democratically elected government within its hemisphere.\n\nThat mention of hemisphere is important, because, ever since the publication of the national security strategy document last year, and the reapplication of the Monroe Doctrine, Washington has been a lot more willing to get involved in the internal affairs of Latin American countries. If you need evidence of this, you're more than welcome to take a trip up to New York to visit Venezuela's former president Nicolas Maduro in his cell.\n\nSomething else that Paz has going for him is that the security forces have so far remained loyal to the state. In 2019, when Morales attempted to extend his grip on power, police in at least 3 cities mutinied and joined anti government demonstrations.\n\nAs long as he can maintain the support of the security forces, which shouldn't be too difficult as long as he pays them and doesn't do anything blatantly unconstitutional, Paz won't be going anywhere—at least not until the end of his term.\n\nHowever, this doesn't mean that Paz has an easy road ahead.\n\nFor one thing, the party that he used as a vehicle to win the elections, the Christian Democratic Party, fractured almost as soon as it got to parliament. This has left him without a reliable legislative majority and locked in a feud with his vice president. The president's electoral weakness was exposed in the regional elections held in March and April, where the candidates he supported only won 2 out of 9 gubernatorial seats up for grabs.\n\nThis was a stinging defeat for a man who just a few months prior had won one of the most unexpected victories in Bolivian politics.\n\nIt also means that Paz has fewer allies he can count on, at any level of government, as the protests continue to heat up.\n\nDespite these headwinds, Paz has tried to reach a settlement with the protesters with varying levels of success. After repealing law 1720, and making the farmers happy, he reached a separate deal with miners after nearly 12 hours of negotiation. However, Paz has been unable to make any inroads with the other major groups involved in the protests, many of whom are still calling for his resignation.\n\nSince dialogue doesn't appear to be working, Paz might only have one option to end the protests quickly, something he likely wants to do given that the protests are reportedly costing Bolivia $50 million a day…deploying the military.\n\nWhile that might stop the protests, it might also mean the end of Paz's political career. The last time the military was deployed to deal with protesters was under Morales in 2019, when, according to Human Rights Watch, they opened fire on protesters, killing dozens. Now we are not saying that, if Paz deploys the military, they will definitely shoot at protesters. Heck, they might even act with a lot more restraint than the riot police have shown so far. However, the sheer fact of the military being deployed might send a message to the protesters that Paz isn't any different from his predecessors, which might galvanize more people to go to the streets.\n\nAll of which means that Paz is between a rock and a hard place. Either he continues negotiating with people who have said they won't be satisfied until he resigns, or he deploys the military and risks the political blowback. Hence why we chose to title this article *Bolivia is f**ked*: because no matter what decision Paz makes, there's going to be a cost. One which could lead to the Andean nation plunging further into chaos.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- President Rodrigo Paz eliminated long-standing fuel subsidies in December 2025, causing gasoline prices to rise 86% and diesel over 160%, sparking nationwide protests.\n- A coalition of farmers, miners, teachers, and trade unionists has protested since late April, causing severe food, fuel, and medicine shortages and seven deaths by late May.\n- Paz signed a law in May 2026 allowing him to declare a state of emergency and deploy the military, though he had not done so at the time of writing.\n- Former president Evo Morales, constitutionally barred from office and a fugitive facing human trafficking charges, supports the protests from his stronghold in Chapare.\n- The U.S. strongly backs Paz, with Secretary Rubio framing protests as a coup attempt, while security forces have remained loyal unlike their 2019 mutiny against Morales.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What triggered the widespread protests in Bolivia that began in late April?\n\nThe protests began with a localized protest by small-scale farmers and quickly swelled to include farmers, miners, teachers, trade unionists, and people generally opposed to the government of President Rodrigo Paz. The immediate triggers included the elimination of fuel subsidies in December 2025 (Supreme Decree 5503) and the passage of law 1720 in April 2026, a land reform measure that farmers feared would lead to evictions and land transfers to large corporations.\n\n### What was Supreme Decree 5503 and what were its effects?\n\nSupreme Decree 5503 was signed by President Rodrigo Paz on December 18, 2025, eliminating fuel subsidies that had been in place for roughly two decades. Gasoline prices rose by 86%, diesel by more than 160%, and transport costs in several regions nearly doubled overnight. Food prices skyrocketed as a result. Paz paired this with a 20% increase in the national minimum wage to about $477 a month, but the measure was deeply unpopular.\n\n### What was law 1720 and why did farmers oppose it?\n\nLaw 1720 was a land reform measure passed on April 8, 2026, that allowed small agricultural landholdings to be voluntarily reclassified as medium-sized properties to make them eligible as collateral for bank loans. Farmers opposed it because reclassifying their smallholdings as medium-sized properties would cause them to lose legal protections that had historically shielded them from land seizures, and many believed eviction was the inevitable next step. Lawyer Roger Chambi told Jacobin that the law would facilitate the transfer of land to large corporations.\n\n### What were the main demands of the protesters?\n\nThe protesters had disparate demands that included: a further 20% increase to the minimum wage, higher pay for teachers, creation of a state-funded single free public education system, greater access to explosives and fuel for miners, implementation of mining regulations, and the resignation of President Paz. Some also felt Paz had gone back on campaign promises by not appointing any indigenous or working-class people to his cabinet.\n\n### What role has former president Evo Morales played in the current protests?\n\nEvo Morales, who ruled from 2006 to 2019, has come out in support of the protests on social media, stating that as long as the people's demands remained unaddressed, the uprising would not be quelled. However, analysts told NPR that despite his fiery rhetoric, Morales didn't have the ability to rally mass support and was instead using the protests as a way to evade justice. Morales has been a fugitive from justice since 2024, hiding in Chapare, and is being tried for human trafficking for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old girl while president. The Paz government has blamed Morales for organizing the unrest.\n\n### What actions has President Paz taken to try to quell the protests?\n\nPaz has taken several actions: he made a deal in January that eliminated fuel subsidies but dropped a provision allowing fast-tracked investment projects and privatization; he repealed law 1720 on May 13; he reshuffled his cabinet on May 20; he announced his salary and those of cabinet ministers would be cut in half; he deployed a convoy of about 2,000 police and military personnel to clear highways; he signed a law on May 27 giving him power to declare a state of emergency; and he reached a separate deal with miners after nearly 12 hours of negotiation.\n\n### What is the position of the United States regarding the Bolivian crisis?\n\nThe United States supports President Paz and has warned of a possible coup d'état. One official described the protests as an attempted coup financed by an unholy alliance between organized crime and politics. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that Washington would not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow a democratically elected government within its hemisphere. This reflects the reapplication of the Monroe Doctrine and increased U.S. willingness to get involved in Latin American internal affairs.\n\n### What are the possible outcomes for Bolivia going forward?\n\nMost Latin America observers lean toward Paz remaining in office if he maintains security force support and U.S. backing. However, Paz faces difficult choices: continuing negotiations with protesters who demand his resignation, or deploying the military and risking political blowback. Deploying the military might end the protests but could galvanize more people to the streets, especially given the precedent of Morales in 2019 when military deployment led to dozens killed. The protests are reportedly costing Bolivia $50 million a day.\n\n### What political weaknesses does President Paz face?\n\nPaz faces several political weaknesses: his party, the Christian Democratic Party, fractured almost as soon as it got to parliament, leaving him without a reliable legislative majority; he is locked in a feud with his vice president; his candidates only won 2 out of 9 gubernatorial seats in regional elections held in March and April 2026; and he has fewer allies at any level of government as protests continue. He also hasn't appointed any indigenous or working-class people to his cabinet, breaking campaign promises.\n\n### What were the human and economic costs of the protests by late May?\n\nBy the end of May, seven people had died and scores more were injured. There were severe food, fuel, and medicine shortages in urban centers. By May 12, there were 67 active roadblocks across the country, and three people reportedly died after emergency vehicles were blocked from reaching medical centers. The protests were reportedly costing Bolivia $50 million a day. The capital La Paz became described as a warzone with police shooting tear gas and protesters responding with stones and explosives.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original WarFronts video: Bolivia is F**ked](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URsL-oV6gqg)\n- https://www.reutersconnect.com/item/social-tensions-escalate-across-bolivia/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjY6bmV3c21sX1ZBMzc4NDI2MDUyMDI2UlAx/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjY6bmV3c21sX0xWQTAwNjM3ODQyNjA1MjAyNlJQMQ\n- https://www.france24.com/en/bolivia-at-a-breaking-point-government-blames-fugitive-ex-leader-for-unrest\n- https://baqsn.bo/en/supreme-decree-no-5503-economic-emergency-measures/\n- https://apnews.com/article/bolivia-fuel-subsidies-protests-evo-morales-dollar-shortages-daf19ee571e93caf8597672ab1351a84\n- https://evrimagaci.org/gpt/bolivia-ends-fuel-subsidies-in-historic-economic-shift-520590\n- https://www.courthousenews.com/bolivias-largest-cities-brought-to-standstill-by-transportation-strike-over-fuel-price-hike/\n- https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/bolivia-government-reaches-deal-end-183238126.html\n- https://boliviabrief.substack.com/p/the-bolivia-brief-land-reform-and\n- https://jacobin.com/2026/05/bolivia-indigenous-land-rights-privatization-paz\n- https://www.ojala.mx/en/ojala-en/indigenous-organization-forces-repeal-of-land-privatization-law-in-bolivia\n- https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/5/7/protests-in-bolivia-escalate-amid-economic-turmoil-and-policy-demands\n- https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/explosions-heard-during-bolivia-march-by-mining-groups-calling-resignation-2026-05-14/\n- https://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/29/kathryn_ledebur_bolivia_andean_information_network\n- https://www.riotimesonline.com/bolivia-hits-67-roadblocks-as-inflation-reaches-14/\n- https://www.ibtimes.com/coup-that-calls-itself-protest-bolivias-crisis-enters-its-darkest-hour-3803259\n- http://web.facebook.com/reel/1311157020593008\n- https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2026/05/23/paz-dice-que-extremara-esfuerzos-para-el-dialogo-en-bolivia-pero-todo-tiene-un-limite/\n- https://www.npr.org/2026/05/20/nx-s1-5828203/bolivia-capital-protests-crisis\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/United_States_Secretary_of_State_Marco_Rubio_together_with_the_President_of_Bolivia_Rodrigo_Paz_at_a_meeting_in_the_city_of_Washington_in_October_2025.jpg) by Pat Bolivia Tv / openverse, by.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://warfronts.pub/article/bolivia-is-fucked.md canonical: https://warfronts.pub/article/bolivia-is-fucked datePublished: 2026-06-12 dateModified: 2026-06-12 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://warfronts.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Warfronts image: "https://media.warfronts.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/URsL-oV6gqg/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 50a6ba47c56b8f2ba70ab342ab5c8e0ae44fd308dbcc07c440e123ceb50b0989 tokens: 6472 summaryUrl: https://warfronts.pub/article/bolivia-is-fucked.md.summary.md --- "We want the government to solve this problem, to fix it once and for all (...) the babies are starving; we can't afford to buy food. We seniors no longer have the money to buy food. I'm asking for a solution." Those words, spoken by a protester in an interview with Reuters, perfectly captured the mood in Bolivia, where since late April, a large coalition made up of farmers, miners, teachers, trade unionists and people generally opposed to the government of President Rodrigo Paz, has taken to the streets to demand for change. What began as a localized protest by small scale farmers, quickly swelled drawing in tens of thousands all over the country. By May, the capital city La Paz, which ironically means the peace in Spanish, was a warzone. Police in riot gear shooting tear gas at protesters, the protesters lobbing the teargas back at the police, alongside stones, and explosives. By the end of May, seven people had died, and scores more had been injured. The protests have almost brought the country to its knees, with France 24 reporting that there are severe food, fuel, and medicine shortages in urban centers. The president recently warned that the country was at the breaking point, while the United States has warned of a possible coup d'etat. So…as Bolivia teeters on the brink, we have to ask…how did we get here? And where will events go next? In short: is Bolivia f**ked? ## A Horrible Christmas Before we begin, a little bit of housekeeping, all of the information in this article is up to date as of the time of writing on Wednesday at around 11 am Central European Time. We say this, because after a brief lull earlier in the week, the protests went a little crazy again, with the defense minister resigning late last night, so who knows where things might stand by the time you read this. But for now, we first need to discuss how Bolivia got itself into this mess. And to do that, we need to mention one key fact about the country. For the past two decades, Bolivia has been governed by a succession of left wing governments, most notably that of Evo Morales, who ruled from 2006 to 2019. He nationalized energy resources, broke ties with Washington, and made alliances with Russia and China, as well as leftist governments across the region, including Venezuela and Cuba. Morales's presidency was also rife with controversy. He had a secret affair with businesswoman Gabriela Zapata, who, through her connections to the presidency, secured multi-million dollar government contracts for a Chinese engineering company. Other than run of the mill corruption, critics accused him of contributing to Bolivia's democratic backsliding. That wave of left wing rule ended in October 2025 when the nation elected a pro-business center-right senator, Rodrigo Paz, as their new president. Paz, the son of a former president, secured 54% of the vote on the back of a platform that called for capitalism for all. He promised economic decentralization, lower taxes, fiscal discipline and continued spending on social programs. For a country that was in the midst of an economic crisis, where the central bank was all but out of dollars, rampant fuel shortages were the order of the day, and annual inflation was over 20%, his policies felt like a welcome change. And that was reflected in the massive crowds that gathered in La Paz to celebrate his victory with fireworks, music, and a lot of hope. But by December, just two short months after being elected, the man who many had proclaimed the saviour of Bolivia was dealing with his first major political crisis. On the 18th of December, Paz signed Supreme Decree 5503, eliminating fuel subsidies that had been in place for roughly two decades and were one of the popular policy holdovers of the leftist regime. Despite its popularity, Paz insisted that it had to go because it didn't make economic sense. Bolivia was buying gasoline at international prices, and selling it at a fraction of the cost, which, according to Paz, was costing the government $10 million a day and only benefiting smugglers who resold the subsidized fuel in Bolivia and abroad. To soften the blow, Paz paired the elimination of the subsidies with a 20% increase in the national minimum wage, setting it at about $477 a month. But none of that mattered to ordinary Bolivians. Gasoline prices rose by 86%, diesel by more than 160%, and because Bolivia imports most of the fuel it consumes, these price increases had an immediate ripple effect on nearly every sector of the economy. Transport costs in several regions nearly doubled overnight, and food prices skyrocketed. Edson Valdez, a leader of a local transportation union, told the AP that the government had given the people the worst Christmas present. Definitely not the ringing endorsement that Paz had hoped for in his first Christmas in office. You can pretty much guess what happened next. The country's biggest trade union, the Bolivian Workers' Center, known by the Spanish acronym (COB) organized a major strike against the removal of the subsidies. However, turnout was a lot lower than the organizers expected, because the government had moved quickly to split the usual protest coalition. La Paz offered the bus drivers union the right to import auto parts duty free, meaning that vehicle repairs would be a lot cheaper. This, and the 20% minimum wage increase, denied the COB the usual numbers that it would have had at such a protest. That's not to say they weren't effective with the numbers that they did have. The miners set off sticks of dynamite, launched fireworks at the police, and generally made the entire situation so untenable that Paz had to make a deal. The deal eliminated the fuel subsidies, but dropped a contentious provision that had allowed the government to fast-track investment projects and privatize public assets without full legislative approval. In short: Paz survived this first wave of unrest with his core policy priority intact, but the fact that the COB had extracted concessions left him looking weak and vulnerable. And come April, that vulnerability would once again be tested. On the 8th of April, Bolivia's congress passed law 1720, a land reform measure the Paz government framed as a pathway to rural credit. Under the law, small agricultural landholdings could be voluntarily reclassified as medium-sized properties, making them eligible as collateral for bank loans. The government saw this as a way of providing small scale farmers with credit at lower interest rates from institutional lenders. But that's not how farmers themselves saw it. By reclassifying their smallholdings as medium-sized properties, they would lose the legal protections that had historically shielded them from land seizures, and many believed eviction was the inevitable next step. Roger Chambi, a lawyer and expert in indigenous land law, told Jacobin that the law would facilitate the transfer of land to large corporations. In a country where more than 25% of the population is employed in agriculture, much of that small scale agriculture, that fear soon transformed into action. On the same day the new law was passed, about 300 people began marching from Pando in the North to El Paz, a journey that would take them 27 days, and see them cover more than 1,000 kilometers. They arrived in the capital on the 4th of May, and held a sit-in in front of the Vice President's office having been barred from entering the Chamber of Deputies to present their petition. That march, and the sit in that followed, was a portent of what would come next. ## A Country On Its Knees For the farmers and indigenous activists, the sit-in proved successful as the government agreed to repeal law 1720 on the 13th of May. However, unlike in January, this didn't stop the protests. That's because there were a lot more people on the streets, each with their own disparate set of demands that couldn't be easily addressed by repealing one law. On the 1st of May, the COB had called for an indefinite general strike until the government met their demands, which included a further 20% increase to the minimum wage, higher pay for teachers, and the creation of a state funded single free public education system. The miners also had a separate list of demands, including greater access to explosives and fuel, and the implementation of mining regulations. Apart from the economic demands, there were those who felt that Paz had gone back on the campaign promises that had won their vote. He hadn't appointed a single indigenous or working class person to his cabinet or to other key positions within the government. Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, told Democracy Now, quoting her here, "There's a huge break between what Paz promised and what he's done in practice, which is select a white, upper-middle-class Cabinet, reject any genuine dialogue (...) or even have any empathy for people and what they're going through day to day." The protests grew exponentially and by the 12th of May, the police were reporting that there were 67 active roadblocks across the country, restricting the flow of food and fuel to La Paz. Three people reportedly died after emergency vehicles were blocked from reaching medical centers. In an attempt to quell public anger, Paz announced, on the 20th of May, that he would reshuffle his cabinet, and five days later he announced that his salary, and those of his cabinet ministers would be cut in half. Predictably, this changed nothing on the street, with people still protesting and blocking the roads. So Paz tried a different tactic. He deployed a convoy of about 2,000 police and military personnel in 150 vehicles with the goal of clearing the highway that linked Paz to Oruro, the nation's fifth largest city, to allow food, fuel, and other critical supplies to reach the capital. The convoy was attacked en route to its destination, forcing the police and the military to retreat. These attacks angered Paz so much that within days, both chambers of Bolivia's Congress voted overwhelmingly to repeal a 2020 law which placed significant restrictions on the Executive's ability to declare a state of emergency. The vote cleared both chambers in under 48 hours, with deputies meeting virtually because blockades had cut off physical access to La Paz. Paz signed it into law on May 27th, giving him the legal cover to deploy the army against the protesters, which, at the time of writing, he is yet to do. By the 27th, though, the various disparate demands on the streets had coalesced into one concrete demand: the protesters wanted Paz to resign. From the outside looking in, it's tempting to see the Bolivian protests, and the calls for the president's resignation, as simply an outpouring of anger against unpopular decisions that the government has made. And while the protesters *do* have a lot of things to be angry about, we can't ignore the political undercurrents running through most of the protests. Undercurrents that lead to one man, former president Evo Morales. Now, as we mentioned earlier, Morales ruled Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. What we didn't mention is that he has long sought to return to power despite being constitutionally barred from running for elected office again. Something else we should mention is that since 2024, Morales has been a fugitive from justice hiding in Chapare, a coca growing region where he maintains strong support. He is being tried for human trafficking, specifically for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old girl while he was president. Despite these controversies, Morales has retained a strong base of support among the country's indigenous peoples and working class. Unsurprisingly, the former president has come out in support of the protests, writing on social media that, as long as the people's demands remained unaddressed, the uprising would not be quelled. Analysts told NPR that despite his fiery rhetoric, Morales didn't have the ability to rally mass support, and was instead using the protests as a way to evade justice. This assessment hasn't stopped the Paz government from blaming Morales for organizing the unrest in a bid to undermine the government. While this blame game hasn't been enough to quell the protests, it has been enough to rally support for Morales both locally, among his supporters, and internationally, among ideologically aligned nations. The question now is: will these protests peter out as time goes by, or are things about to get even more dramatic? ## What Next? When trying to figure out where Bolivia goes next, the answer depends on who you ask. Most protesters would say that they want to see Paz and his entire government resign, while Paz's supporters would insist that he be allowed to serve his full term in office. If you were to ask most Latin America observers, they would lean heavily towards Paz remaining in office, even if the protests continue to intensify. The main reason for this is Washington. Paz has Uncle Sam's full support with one official describing the protests as an attempted coup financed by the unholy alliance between organized crime and politics that's active throughout the region. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was even more emphatic in his support, writing on X that Washington would not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow a democratically elected government within its hemisphere. That mention of hemisphere is important, because, ever since the publication of the national security strategy document last year, and the reapplication of the Monroe Doctrine, Washington has been a lot more willing to get involved in the internal affairs of Latin American countries. If you need evidence of this, you're more than welcome to take a trip up to New York to visit Venezuela's former president Nicolas Maduro in his cell. Something else that Paz has going for him is that the security forces have so far remained loyal to the state. In 2019, when Morales attempted to extend his grip on power, police in at least 3 cities mutinied and joined anti government demonstrations. As long as he can maintain the support of the security forces, which shouldn't be too difficult as long as he pays them and doesn't do anything blatantly unconstitutional, Paz won't be going anywhere—at least not until the end of his term. However, this doesn't mean that Paz has an easy road ahead. For one thing, the party that he used as a vehicle to win the elections, the Christian Democratic Party, fractured almost as soon as it got to parliament. This has left him without a reliable legislative majority and locked in a feud with his vice president. The president's electoral weakness was exposed in the regional elections held in March and April, where the candidates he supported only won 2 out of 9 gubernatorial seats up for grabs. This was a stinging defeat for a man who just a few months prior had won one of the most unexpected victories in Bolivian politics. It also means that Paz has fewer allies he can count on, at any level of government, as the protests continue to heat up. Despite these headwinds, Paz has tried to reach a settlement with the protesters with varying levels of success. After repealing law 1720, and making the farmers happy, he reached a separate deal with miners after nearly 12 hours of negotiation. However, Paz has been unable to make any inroads with the other major groups involved in the protests, many of whom are still calling for his resignation. Since dialogue doesn't appear to be working, Paz might only have one option to end the protests quickly, something he likely wants to do given that the protests are reportedly costing Bolivia $50 million a day…deploying the military. While that might stop the protests, it might also mean the end of Paz's political career. The last time the military was deployed to deal with protesters was under Morales in 2019, when, according to Human Rights Watch, they opened fire on protesters, killing dozens. Now we are not saying that, if Paz deploys the military, they will definitely shoot at protesters. Heck, they might even act with a lot more restraint than the riot police have shown so far. However, the sheer fact of the military being deployed might send a message to the protesters that Paz isn't any different from his predecessors, which might galvanize more people to go to the streets. All of which means that Paz is between a rock and a hard place. Either he continues negotiating with people who have said they won't be satisfied until he resigns, or he deploys the military and risks the political blowback. Hence why we chose to title this article *Bolivia is f**ked*: because no matter what decision Paz makes, there's going to be a cost. One which could lead to the Andean nation plunging further into chaos. ## Key Takeaways - President Rodrigo Paz eliminated long-standing fuel subsidies in December 2025, causing gasoline prices to rise 86% and diesel over 160%, sparking nationwide protests. - A coalition of farmers, miners, teachers, and trade unionists has protested since late April, causing severe food, fuel, and medicine shortages and seven deaths by late May. - Paz signed a law in May 2026 allowing him to declare a state of emergency and deploy the military, though he had not done so at the time of writing. - Former president Evo Morales, constitutionally barred from office and a fugitive facing human trafficking charges, supports the protests from his stronghold in Chapare. - The U.S. strongly backs Paz, with Secretary Rubio framing protests as a coup attempt, while security forces have remained loyal unlike their 2019 mutiny against Morales. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What triggered the widespread protests in Bolivia that began in late April? The protests began with a localized protest by small-scale farmers and quickly swelled to include farmers, miners, teachers, trade unionists, and people generally opposed to the government of President Rodrigo Paz. The immediate triggers included the elimination of fuel subsidies in December 2025 (Supreme Decree 5503) and the passage of law 1720 in April 2026, a land reform measure that farmers feared would lead to evictions and land transfers to large corporations. ### What was Supreme Decree 5503 and what were its effects? Supreme Decree 5503 was signed by President Rodrigo Paz on December 18, 2025, eliminating fuel subsidies that had been in place for roughly two decades. Gasoline prices rose by 86%, diesel by more than 160%, and transport costs in several regions nearly doubled overnight. Food prices skyrocketed as a result. Paz paired this with a 20% increase in the national minimum wage to about $477 a month, but the measure was deeply unpopular. ### What was law 1720 and why did farmers oppose it? Law 1720 was a land reform measure passed on April 8, 2026, that allowed small agricultural landholdings to be voluntarily reclassified as medium-sized properties to make them eligible as collateral for bank loans. Farmers opposed it because reclassifying their smallholdings as medium-sized properties would cause them to lose legal protections that had historically shielded them from land seizures, and many believed eviction was the inevitable next step. Lawyer Roger Chambi told Jacobin that the law would facilitate the transfer of land to large corporations. ### What were the main demands of the protesters? The protesters had disparate demands that included: a further 20% increase to the minimum wage, higher pay for teachers, creation of a state-funded single free public education system, greater access to explosives and fuel for miners, implementation of mining regulations, and the resignation of President Paz. Some also felt Paz had gone back on campaign promises by not appointing any indigenous or working-class people to his cabinet. ### What role has former president Evo Morales played in the current protests? Evo Morales, who ruled from 2006 to 2019, has come out in support of the protests on social media, stating that as long as the people's demands remained unaddressed, the uprising would not be quelled. However, analysts told NPR that despite his fiery rhetoric, Morales didn't have the ability to rally mass support and was instead using the protests as a way to evade justice. Morales has been a fugitive from justice since 2024, hiding in Chapare, and is being tried for human trafficking for allegedly impregnating a 15-year-old girl while president. The Paz government has blamed Morales for organizing the unrest. ### What actions has President Paz taken to try to quell the protests? Paz has taken several actions: he made a deal in January that eliminated fuel subsidies but dropped a provision allowing fast-tracked investment projects and privatization; he repealed law 1720 on May 13; he reshuffled his cabinet on May 20; he announced his salary and those of cabinet ministers would be cut in half; he deployed a convoy of about 2,000 police and military personnel to clear highways; he signed a law on May 27 giving him power to declare a state of emergency; and he reached a separate deal with miners after nearly 12 hours of negotiation. ### What is the position of the United States regarding the Bolivian crisis? The United States supports President Paz and has warned of a possible coup d'état. One official described the protests as an attempted coup financed by an unholy alliance between organized crime and politics. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that Washington would not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow a democratically elected government within its hemisphere. This reflects the reapplication of the Monroe Doctrine and increased U.S. willingness to get involved in Latin American internal affairs. ### What are the possible outcomes for Bolivia going forward? Most Latin America observers lean toward Paz remaining in office if he maintains security force support and U.S. backing. However, Paz faces difficult choices: continuing negotiations with protesters who demand his resignation, or deploying the military and risking political blowback. Deploying the military might end the protests but could galvanize more people to the streets, especially given the precedent of Morales in 2019 when military deployment led to dozens killed. The protests are reportedly costing Bolivia $50 million a day. ### What political weaknesses does President Paz face? Paz faces several political weaknesses: his party, the Christian Democratic Party, fractured almost as soon as it got to parliament, leaving him without a reliable legislative majority; he is locked in a feud with his vice president; his candidates only won 2 out of 9 gubernatorial seats in regional elections held in March and April 2026; and he has fewer allies at any level of government as protests continue. He also hasn't appointed any indigenous or working-class people to his cabinet, breaking campaign promises. ### What were the human and economic costs of the protests by late May? By the end of May, seven people had died and scores more were injured. There were severe food, fuel, and medicine shortages in urban centers. By May 12, there were 67 active roadblocks across the country, and three people reportedly died after emergency vehicles were blocked from reaching medical centers. The protests were reportedly costing Bolivia $50 million a day. The capital La Paz became described as a warzone with police shooting tear gas and protesters responding with stones and explosives. ## Sources - [Original WarFronts video: Bolivia is F**ked](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URsL-oV6gqg) - https://www.reutersconnect.com/item/social-tensions-escalate-across-bolivia/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjY6bmV3c21sX1ZBMzc4NDI2MDUyMDI2UlAx/dGFnOnJldXRlcnMuY29tLDIwMjY6bmV3c21sX0xWQTAwNjM3ODQyNjA1MjAyNlJQMQ - https://www.france24.com/en/bolivia-at-a-breaking-point-government-blames-fugitive-ex-leader-for-unrest - https://baqsn.bo/en/supreme-decree-no-5503-economic-emergency-measures/ - https://apnews.com/article/bolivia-fuel-subsidies-protests-evo-morales-dollar-shortages-daf19ee571e93caf8597672ab1351a84 - https://evrimagaci.org/gpt/bolivia-ends-fuel-subsidies-in-historic-economic-shift-520590 - https://www.courthousenews.com/bolivias-largest-cities-brought-to-standstill-by-transportation-strike-over-fuel-price-hike/ - https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/bolivia-government-reaches-deal-end-183238126.html - https://boliviabrief.substack.com/p/the-bolivia-brief-land-reform-and - https://jacobin.com/2026/05/bolivia-indigenous-land-rights-privatization-paz - https://www.ojala.mx/en/ojala-en/indigenous-organization-forces-repeal-of-land-privatization-law-in-bolivia - https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/5/7/protests-in-bolivia-escalate-amid-economic-turmoil-and-policy-demands - https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/explosions-heard-during-bolivia-march-by-mining-groups-calling-resignation-2026-05-14/ - https://www.democracynow.org/2026/5/29/kathryn_ledebur_bolivia_andean_information_network - https://www.riotimesonline.com/bolivia-hits-67-roadblocks-as-inflation-reaches-14/ - https://www.ibtimes.com/coup-that-calls-itself-protest-bolivias-crisis-enters-its-darkest-hour-3803259 - http://web.facebook.com/reel/1311157020593008 - https://www.infobae.com/america/agencias/2026/05/23/paz-dice-que-extremara-esfuerzos-para-el-dialogo-en-bolivia-pero-todo-tiene-un-limite/ - https://www.npr.org/2026/05/20/nx-s1-5828203/bolivia-capital-protests-crisis - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/United_States_Secretary_of_State_Marco_Rubio_together_with_the_President_of_Bolivia_Rodrigo_Paz_at_a_meeting_in_the_city_of_Washington_in_October_2025.jpg) by Pat Bolivia Tv / openverse, by. ## Related Coverage