Santa Cruz, Bolivia – A spiralling political conflict is threatening social stability in Bolivia.
Just six months after the new administration took office, President Rodrigo Paz is facing a wave of demonstrations, highway blockades and growing calls for his resignation.
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The unrest began a little more than a month ago with the convergence of several sector-based demands. Some organisations were calling for wage increases, others complained about contaminated fuel that had damaged thousands of vehicles, while additional groups protested against a law authorising changes to land classifications, which, its critics said, favoured land concentration among big business owners.
Although the government managed to ease some of the disputes by conceding to certain demands, including repealing the land law and offering a financial bonus for teachers, as well as speeding up compensation for some vehicles damaged, Indigenous groups from the highlands decided to push the protests to the limit by blocking roads in an effort to force the president to step down.
On May 6, hundreds of protesters began erecting barricades that have since surrounded the city of La Paz, the seat of government, maintaining an average of 20 simultaneous pickets each day. They have also secured the support of other organisations that have historically exerted pressure over government decision-making, including the Bolivian Workers’ Union.
“The demand is for the president to resign due to his inability to solve the country’s structural problems; he is leading us adrift … he is mortgaging the country. What future awaits our children and grandchildren?” Mario Argollo, union leader of Central Obrera Boliviana, told reporters.
The Andean cities of La Paz and El Alto, two of the country’s most populous urban centers and that are adjacent to each other, are facing food shortages, the suspension of classes in some schools and disruptions to public transportation as hundreds of protesters block roads.
Although many residents affected by the protests have demanded a tougher response against demonstrators in order to restore order, the government has so far ruled out declaring a state of emergency.
Despite the differing motivations of the social groups taking part in the protests, many analysts believe there is a deeper issue behind the unrest: growing discontent among Indigenous and working-class sectors.
‘Political and strategic shift’
Rodrigo Paz was a centrist senator who, despite having a long political career, was not a nationally known figure and managed to present himself as a “new” candidate. He became Bolivia’s first president after the era of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), which governed the country for nearly 20 years with record-breaking electoral victories and congressional majorities. Due to poor administrative management and corruption, MAS left the country facing a deep economic crisis and received just 3 percent of the vote in the 2025 elections.
During the election campaign, Rodrigo Paz adopted a moderate, centrist discourse and rose to power largely thanks to former MAS voters.
Now, six months into the presidency, those voters are not only disenchanted, but also feeling excluded from the government, as Rodrigo Paz did not appoint Indigenous people or working-class individuals to the cabinet or to key positions within the government.
These groups, which had governed alongside MAS for the past two decades now perceive the administration as aligned with business elites and governing in their favour.
Some of the policy moves that added to the discontent include Paz eliminating a tax on large fortunes, appointing members of the business elite to his cabinet, approving laws favouring agribusiness – such as the use of genetically modified seeds – and aligning himself with the United States and Israel, countries with which Bolivia had no diplomatic relations. He also went from rejecting international loans during the campaign to seeking financing from organisations such as the International Monetary Fund.
“Rodrigo Paz won with a very different agenda, and halfway through, he carried out a political and strategic shift, both in the composition of his administration and in its orientation. Popular sectors, therefore, perceive not only exclusion, but also an outright betrayal,” political analyst Luciana Jauregui told Al Jazeera. It was the support of workers and rural communities that allowed Paz to win the election with 55 percent of the vote, she said.
Amid the protests, former President Evo Morales, who was in power from 2006 to 2019, escalated pressure further by mobilising his supporters for a 190-kilometre (118-mile) march towards La Paz to demand the president’s resignation and the suspension of judicial proceedings against the former leader. Morales is facing an arrest warrant and has been accused of abusing a teenage girl during his presidency.
Morales was the country’s first Indigenous president, governed Bolivia for three consecutive terms, and achieved unprecedented electoral support. He governed with virtually no opposition, and his administration was marked by policies of social inclusion, Indigenous recognition, and economic prosperity, driven by booming gas exports and a significant poverty reduction.
In recent years, however, the country has faced a gradual economic deterioration marked by the decline of the oil and gas industry, partly because of poor management, a consequent shortage of US dollars as that export fell, and rising inflation.
That economic downturn ultimately led MAS to lose power amid disputes between Morales and his successor, former President Luis Arce, who battled for control of the party.
Despite the power he held, Morales’s departure from government was chaotic: He ultimately resigned in 2019 amid protests after seeking an illegal fourth term.
Rodrigo Paz’s administration has accused the former president of orchestrating a “macabre plan” aimed at destabilising the government and returning to power. Officials have also claimed the protests are financed by drug trafficking, although no evidence has been presented to support those accusations.
“Our struggle is against those powers that receive money from drug trafficking and use the tools of terrorism to seize power by force,” presidential spokesperson Jose Luis Galvez said during a news conference.
Morales, far from addressing the accusations directly, criticised a government that he says “protects business owners, bankers and agro-industrial elites while ordinary people once again stand in lines, go into debt and endure hunger”.
“No speech is going to erase that reality,” he wrote on X.
Increasing violence
In recent days, violence has intensified in La Paz amid the convergence of multiple marches around government offices in which miners armed with dynamite and explosive materials clashed with the police. Local media also reported attacks on public institutions and assaults on civilians. According to official sources, more than 120 people were detained during Monday’s unrest, while at least 11 injuries were reported.
For the government, the conflict has two distinct dimensions: legitimate demands and efforts aimed solely at overthrowing the president.
“We are going to act with two instruments: dialogue for the legitimate sectors and the full force of the law against those who are attacking democracy,” Presidency Minister Jose Luis Lupo said.
Without institutional representation, the social sectors that once governed alongside MAS are now seeking to reclaim a role in political decision-making.
Magdalena Choque, a woman protesting in the streets of La Paz, said she remained “in struggle against the government” because authorities “are not listening to the people”.
“They do not consult us. Everything is imposed by decrees, and nothing benefits our homeland. We are being discriminated [against], there is division here,” she said in a video recorded on the streets of La Paz and shared online.
Both the elimination of the tax on large fortunes and the removal of fuel subsidies, for instance, were approved by decree.
“Rodrigo Paz’s government had the historic opportunity to propose a new social synthesis. That opportunity is being squandered,” Jauregui said, although she believes the current conflict could ultimately become the basis for a new “social pact that includes all sectors.”
Although it remains difficult to predict the direction the unrest will take, the government appears willing to cede some amount of power.
“The idea is to create a ministry that includes participation from social organisations; that could be an option,” Public Works Minister Mauricio Zamora, a close ally of Paz, said in a radio interview.
As authorities search for a way out of the country’s maze of social conflict, the government has ordered police forces to periodically intervene in the blockades to establish a “humanitarian corridor” allowing food and medicine to reach La Paz, which, as the country’s administrative capital, occasionally becomes the stage for Bolivia’s political disputes.
