{"id":508537,"date":"2026-05-25T19:17:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/tension-in-bolivia-thousands-march-in-la-paz-in-the-fourth-week-of-protests\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T19:17:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T23:17:36","slug":"tension-in-bolivia-thousands-march-in-la-paz-in-the-fourth-week-of-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/uncategorized\/tension-in-bolivia-thousands-march-in-la-paz-in-the-fourth-week-of-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Tension in Bolivia: thousands march in La Paz in the fourth week of protests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thousands of protesters march this Monday in the political capital of Bolivia to demand the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz<\/strong>, who announced that he will cut his salary in half in an attempt to calm the protests that have now entered their fourth week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>The center-right president, 58 years old, faces the largest social protest in his short administration that began last November, before\u00a0the economic crisis facing the Andean country<\/strong>, the largest in the last four decades.<\/p>\n\n\nThousands of neighbors, miners, farmers and factory workers marched through streets and avenues<\/strong> of La Paz, seat of the Executive and Legislative powers.\n\n\n

<\/a>“The people are pissed off (annoyed)!”, some protesters shout.<\/p>\n\n\nProtesters reject Paz’s liberal economic policy<\/strong>, demand wage increases and blame him for the distribution of poor quality gasoline that damaged thousands of vehicles.\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cWhat do we want? Resign!, When? Now!<\/strong>\u201d, shouts the crowd that detonated firecrackers, as they descended towards La Paz from the neighboring city of El Alto, journalists from AFP<\/em> confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\nThe protests began in early May with a call for a strike by the Bolivian Workers’ Central<\/strong> (COB), the largest union in the country, and road blockades that reach fifty in different parts of the country.\n\nThe scarcity of medicines, gasoline, and food<\/strong> is mainly recorded in La Paz and its neighbor El Alto. In other cities, such as Oruro (west), Potos\u00ed (southwest) and Cochabamba (center) the problem is less severe.\n\n\n

\u201cWe are angry!\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\nThe 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.\n\nOn 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.\n\n\u201cThis government is massacring us, it is discriminating against us<\/strong>\u201d, says Julia Ram\u00edrez, a 57-year-old Aymara peasant woman.\n\nF\u00e9lix Mamani, 27-year-old miner, assures the AFP<\/em>: \u201cWe are angry, because they have lied to us<\/strong>\u201d the Paz government.\n\nThe protesters arrived in downtown La Paz, but access to the main square is cordoned off by hundreds of riot police.\n\nThere are several barricades of uniformed personnel on the access streets with metal fences, bars and chains<\/strong>.\n\nRetail vendors trade face masks and vinegar to alleviate the effects of tear gas, launched in last week’s marches.\n\nIn 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<\/strong>.\n\nThe 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.\n\nThe president called for dialogue again this Monday with the organizations leading the protests<\/strong>, but ruled out talking to radical protesters who use violence.\n\n“A minority cannot govern, a minority cannot abuse us and we will clearly enforce the Constitution<\/strong>,” he warned.\n\nThe Bolivian government has denounced that these mobilizations seek to “alter the democratic order” and accused former socialist president Evo Morales<\/strong> of instigating them, who is a fugitive in a case of alleged trafficking of a minor.\n\nThe coca grower leader urged the government on Sunday to call for new elections in 90 days.\n\nOn 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.<\/strong>\n\nThe international community, led by the United States, has expressed strong support for Bolivian democracy.\n\nThe Secretary of State, Marco Rubio said last week that the United States will not allow “criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow democratically elected leaders<\/strong>.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-508537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-28id","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","dum_api":{"author_name":"Yerandi Santana","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cropped-WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-13-at-5.35.07-PM-96x96.jpeg","categories_name":["Uncategorized"],"featured_media_url":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}