Thousands of protesters march this Monday in the political capital of Bolivia to demand the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz, who announced that he will cut his salary in half in an attempt to calm the protests that have now entered their fourth week.
The center-right president, 58 years old, faces the largest social protest in his short administration that began last November, before the economic crisis facing the Andean country, the largest in the last four decades.
Thousands of neighbors, miners, farmers and factory workers marched through streets and avenues of La Paz, seat of the Executive and Legislative powers.
“The people are pissed off (annoyed)!”, some protesters shout.
Protesters reject Paz’s liberal economic policy, demand wage increases and blame him for the distribution of poor quality gasoline that damaged thousands of vehicles.
“What do we want? Resign!, When? Now!”, shouts the crowd that detonated firecrackers, as they descended towards La Paz from the neighboring city of El Alto, journalists from AFP confirmed.
The protests began in early May with a call for a strike by the
Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB), the largest union in the country, and road blockades that reach fifty in different parts of the country.
The
scarcity of medicines, gasoline, and food is mainly recorded in La Paz and its neighbor El Alto. In other cities, such as Oruro (west), Potosí (southwest) and Cochabamba (center) the problem is less severe.
“We are angry!”
The trucks are stopped and waiting to be unlocked while security personnel try to open “humanitarian corridors” amid nationwide protests aimed at pressuring the Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz’s government to revoke austerity measures and address the rising cost of living, in Apacheta, Bolivia, May 23, 2026.
On Saturday, there were clashes when police and military unsuccessfully tried to enable entry to La Paz and El Alto for convoys with gasoline, medicine, and food. They were stopped by civilians who used stones and sticks.
“
This government is massacring us, it is discriminating against us”, says Julia Ramírez, a 57-year-old Aymara peasant woman.
Félix Mamani, 27-year-old miner, assures the
AFP: “
We are angry, because they have lied to us” the Paz government.
The protesters arrived in downtown La Paz, but access to the main square is cordoned off by hundreds of riot police.
There are several barricades of uniformed personnel on the
access streets with metal fences, bars and chains.
Retail vendors trade face masks and vinegar to alleviate the effects of tear gas, launched in last week’s marches.
In a speech he gave in the southern city of Sucre, on a civic anniversary, the president announced that
he will halve his salary and that of his ministers.
The measure is almost symbolic. The monthly income of the head of state is about 24,000 Bolivianos ($3,448) and its reduction is not among the demands of the protesters.
The president called for dialogue again this Monday with the organizations leading the protests, but ruled out talking to radical protesters who use violence.
“A minority cannot govern, a minority cannot abuse us and
we will clearly enforce the Constitution,” he warned.
The Bolivian government has denounced that these mobilizations seek to “alter the democratic order” and accused former socialist president
Evo Morales of instigating them, who is a fugitive in a case of alleged trafficking of a minor.
The coca grower leader urged the government on Sunday to call for new elections in 90 days.
On Sunday, Paz was supposed to start a dialogue with a union of farmers, but the meeting did not take place due to the
clashes with the police on Saturday.
The international community, led by the United States, has expressed strong support for Bolivian democracy.
The Secretary of State,
Marco Rubio said last week that the United States will not allow “criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow democratically elected leaders.
