Bolivia: President Paz declares a state of emergency after more than six weeks of violent protests

Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency Saturday and ordered the mobilization of police and military forces following more than six weeks of protests and roadblocks led by Aymara Indigenous people and peasants aligned with former leftist President Evo Morales, who are demanding his resignation.

Paz justifies the national emergency

The center-right leader had reached an agreement Friday with the Bolivian Workers' Confederation (COB) to calm the situation in the country, but AFP reported that Indigenous members of the Túpac Katari Federation and coca growers aligned with Morales decided to continue the road blockades.

“We have made the decision to declare a state of emergency throughout the national territory,” the head of state said during a message broadcast by the state-run channel from the Government Palace. He also asserted that he is taking this measure in response to “an attempted coup d’état by narco-terrorists.”

Paz’s center-right government, which took office in November after 20 years of left-wing administrations, accuses former President Morales of inciting the protests and using money from drug trafficking.

The escalation of protests in Bolivia

Since early May, workers, farmers and Indigenous people have been staging a strike and roadblocks to demand that the government provide solutions to the economic crisis and to protest what they consider the sale of low-quality gasoline, which has sparked widespread discontent.

In the absence of an agreement, these groups escalated their demands to call for the president’s resignation, and the roadblocks spread throughout the country. In addition, several days of clashes with police were reported in La Paz, which, along with its neighboring city El Alto, is facing shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Morales is in hiding in the coca-growing region of Chapare, in the center of the country, to avoid an arrest warrant related to a human trafficking case that he denies. He has also rejected accusations of ties to drug trafficking.