Bolivia on edge after Paz declares emergency to clear protest gridlock

By Cassandra Garrison

LA PAZ, June 20 (Reuters) – Tensions soared in Bolivia on Saturday after President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency, allowing security forces to begin clearing protesters’ roadblocks that have paralyzed the economy over the past 50 days and left at least 14 people dead. 

In an early morning address, Paz said the anti-government blockades were no longer a social protest but an organized attempt to destabilize Bolivia’s democracy.

“There comes a moment when failing to act ceases to be prudence and becomes irresponsibility. And that moment has arrived,” Paz said, promising the measure, which enables wider military deployment, would protect citizens and ensure the flow of essential goods. He warned that those continuing disruptions would face legal consequences.

Protesting groups, many allied to former leftist President Evo Morales, have cut off key roads, stranding trucks and choking supplies of food, fuel and medicines to many areas, particularly hurting Bolivia’s administrative capital La Paz and the neighboring city of El Alto. 

By Saturday afternoon, police and armed forces had cleared several roadblocks and normality was returning, Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano told journalists. He added that the government remained open to dialogue while defending the emergency measures as necessary to restore citizens’ rights and essential supplies.

On highways in and around El Alto, chaotic scenes unfolded earlier as neighbors clashed when government tractors began clearing some roadblocks. 

“We have suffered, and we want all of this cleaned up. It’s good,” said Elvira de Mamani, 65, as she watched a tractor clear debris that had been blocking the highway in front of her neighborhood in El Alto.

In an area of El Alto home to migrants from peasant highland communities, dozens of people lined a highway shouting their support for the protests.

“We have the right to fight for our livelihoods, for our food … We will fight for our children!” protester Fortunata Perez said through tears.

EMERGENCY POWERS

 Congress cleared a path for the declaration in May when it repealed a law that had set limits ​on the executive branch’s use of emergency orders.

“We have seen that after 50 days of the blockade, it was necessary. We see it as somewhat late, because unfortunately, lives have been lost,” said Lissa Claros, a lawmaker from the right-wing Alianza Libre party, the largest non-government party in Congress. 

While the order takes effect immediately, the president must notify Congress of the state of emergency within 24 hours of issuing the decree. Congress then has up to 72 hours to approve or reject it.

Senator Jose Manuel Ormachea, also from Alianza Libre, said his party would back the measure at a congressional vote expected on Saturday evening.

Some opposition lawmakers had warned a state of emergency could further ratchet up tensions, while analysts and legal experts have also said the emergency powers could deepen unrest if they lack public support and fail to address the protests’ underlying causes. 

“It is a state of emergency to give freedom back to the people, to free Bolivia from those who use political conflict to block roads and harm the population,” Paz said.

Paz addressed the nation hours after he unveiled a deal struck on Friday with the main union, the Bolivian Workers’ Confederation (COB), that aimed to ease tension. 

However, many roads connecting Bolivia’s main production center are under the control of rural associations aligned with Morales, who were not a part of the negotiations and continue to protest, mainly around Cochabamba.

Bolivia’s mining ministry said the country’s mines were operating normally. 

ROOTS OF THE UNREST

The conflict erupted after Paz abruptly cut longstanding fuel subsidies to shrink the deficit, amid a worsening dollar crunch and talks with the International Monetary Fund. Despite later steps to stabilize fuel prices and reverse unpopular land reforms, protests intensified, with unions demanding wage increases, an end to fuel and dollar shortages, and Paz’s resignation.

Paz has been in power for seven months, after nearly two decades of governments under the leftist Movement Toward Socialism, headed by Morales, who governed Bolivia from 2006 to 2019.

Paz, who took office with the backing of President Donald Trump as part of a broader strategy to increase U.S. influence in the hemisphere, ​has blamed Morales for stoking the unrest.

Morales has backed the protest movement, called for early elections and cast the unrest as resistance to Paz’s economic policies. In an exclusive interview with Reuters this week, Morales denied any ​role in instigating dissent, saying the “indigenous rebellion” was driven by economic hardship.

The U.S. “strongly supports” Paz’s decision “to restore order and ensure the free flow of food, medicine, and essential supplies to the Bolivian people,” a State Department official said on Saturday. 

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Monica Machicao in La Paz; Additional reporting by Daniel Ramos and Kalea Hall; Writing by Cassandra Garrison and Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Mark Potter, Alexandra Hudson, Rod Nickel)