Bolivia:
People take streets to demand neoliberal President Paz resign

Giorgio Trucchi, an experienced journalist published on progressive Spanish-language media, wrote in this article about the last three weeks of a popular uprising in Bolivia demanding the resignation of rightist President Rodrigo Paz Pereira and his neoliberal policies. Translation: John Catalinotto

On May 19, just over six months after Paz took office, the country woke up to dozens of roadblocks in at least six departments (La Paz, Oruro, Potosí, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz). The protest, which involves broad sectors of Bolivian society, is directed against a series of economic austerity measures that primarily affect the nation’s most vulnerable sectors.

Through decrees and budget reforms, such as Decree 5503, subsidies (such as fuel subsidies) were eliminated, public spending was drastically cut and plans were made to downsize the public sector (through wage freezes and a hiring freeze). Measures were also adopted to further deregulate the market, handing over land, territories and common goods to transnational capital.

This “austerity plan” has sparked social protests, which have grown in intensity and become increasingly massive as the government has hardened its stance and unleashed repression.

So far, more than 150 people have been reported detained with at least 50 injured, and there is reportedly already one death among the protesters. Arrest warrants have been issued for Mario Argollo, leader of the Bolivian Workers’ Confederation (Cob); David Quispe, leader of the Single Trade Union Confederation of Bolivian Workers (Csutcb); and Justino Apaza, vice president of the National Confederation of Neighborhood Councils of Bolivia (Conaljuve). Arrest warrants have also been issued for peasant leader Héctor Huacani, alternate Senator Nilton Condori and the leader of the “red ponchos” of El Alto, Winston Genio.

The charges against them include public incitement to commit crimes, criminal association, terrorism, financing of terrorism and attacks against the security of transportation and public services.

Former President Evo Morales is also under fire. From his X account, he denounced the plan orchestrated by the United States and set in motion by Rodrigo Paz: “The United States ordered the government of Rodrigo Paz to carry out a military operation, with the support of the DEA and the Southern Command, to arrest and kill me.”

Morales also points to other actors in the alleged assassination plot, including former minister Carlos “Zorro” Sánchez, Deputy Minister of Social Defense Ernesto Justiniano and Argentine Fernando Cerimedo.

Interview of Sergio de la Zerda

In an interview on the program Geopolitics from the Village, Bolivian journalist and former assembly member Sergio de la Zerda analyzed the context in which this new popular uprising is taking place: “We are experiencing a new insurrectionary process in response to the neoliberal policies imposed by Rodrigo Paz, who seeks to revive the very measures we endured for twenty years (1985-2005) and which left us with a country mired in misery.”

Between 2006 and 2018, under the governments of Evo Morales, Bolivia underwent a significant process of economic and social transformation, with a massive reduction in extreme poverty (from 38.2% to 15.2%). The 2019 coup, Morales’ defeat in the 2020 elections and the sharp contradictions that characterized the government of Luis Arce and the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) cleared the way for the electoral victory of Bolivia’s right wing.

For De la Zerda, in just six months, Bolivians have witnessed the systematic failure to fulfill President Paz’s campaign promises. “He began by eliminating taxes on large fortunes, requested multimillion-dollar loans from multilateral financial institutions, issued decrees cutting subsidies and brought ‘garbage gasoline’ into the country that damaged a significant portion of the national vehicle fleet.”

Furthermore, the journalist continues, he allowed the reversal of small peasant landholdings for the exploitation and benefit of large landowners and bankers. “All of this triggered what we have been seeing for nearly a month. The protests are massive, and the government, instead of calling for a dialogue, has chosen to intensify persecution and repression. Despite the attacks, we highlight this spirit of popular insurgency in opposition to a return to neoliberalism and a Bolivia for the very few.”

For the former legislator, there is no doubt that behind the imposition of a return to the past lie the government and U.S. big capital. De la Zerda stated: “Bolivia has the world’s largest lithium reserves; our mining sector remains significant in terms of tin, copper, gold and rare earths. Unfortunately, all of this is being compromised through shady deals with governments and multinationals, including the hydrocarbons that were nationalized by the government of Evo Morales.”

It is no coincidence that eight Latin American countries [Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Peru] — among the most submissive to U.S. policies — have issued a joint statement against the social protests and in defense of the Bolivian president.

De la Zerda concluded: “Faced with these plans and the climate of insecurity that has emerged in recent months, the people have been outraged, have reacted and have decided to put a stop to it. It is a process of outrage that has been growing and is now being expressed in the streets, where it is being brutally repressed.”

ALBA Movimientos denounces repression

ALBA Movimientos [a platform for popular organizations in 25 countries] has spoken out against the repression. “The blood spilled in the streets of Bolivia is the direct responsibility of a government that, subordinate to the interests of business elites and U.S. imperialism, has decided to respond with violence to legitimate popular demands.”

For the continental organization, what is happening these days is not the result of chaos nor of a supposed anti-government conspiracy, but “the direct consequence of a neoliberal and anti-popular project that seeks to privatize common goods, commodify land, hand over strategic resources and shift the burden of the economic crisis onto the backs of working people.”

In this sense, the Bolivian government not only represents a conservative restoration project subordinate to the interests of the United States, transnational corporations and international financial institutions, but “alignment with these interests and the attack on popular gains are part of a continental strategy to recolonize Our America.”

In addition to strongly condemning the murders, arbitrary detentions and militarization, ALBA Movimientos demands an immediate end to the repression and denounces “the complicit silence of international organizations and the governments of the region in the face of the violence perpetrated against the Bolivian people.”

Finally, he calls on the continent’s progressive forces to intensify solidarity actions with Bolivia and to denounce the government’s violence internationally. “The struggle of the Bolivian people is the struggle of all of Our America. Because in the face of the advance of fascism, neoliberalism and imperialism, the only way out is more popular organization, more continental unity and more struggle.”

“I am convinced that if Rodrigo Paz insists on following the path of his neoliberal predecessors, he will fare very poorly. The Bolivian people will no longer tolerate massacres and are very attentive to the social gains achieved through decades of struggle,” concluded de la Zerda.