Bolivia declares a state of emergency as road blockades choke fuel and food supplies
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency on Saturday, granting the military broad authority to dismantle road blockades that have throttled fuel, food and medical deliveries to La Paz and other major cities. The blockades, sustained over roughly the past 50 days, have ground much of the economy to a halt.
The protests — backed by trade unions, farmers and supporters of former president Evo Morales — are demanding that Paz resign over austerity measures, chiefly the cancellation of fuel subsidies. Bolivia’s ombudsman and human rights groups attribute at least 17 deaths to the unrest, most tied to a lack of medical care caused by the transport disruptions.
The decree converts an economic and political standoff into a security operation: by authorizing troops to reopen routes, Paz is betting that restoring supply lines will blunt the protests faster than negotiation. The risk is that deploying the military against blockades manned by Morales’s base escalates confrontation in a country where his movement retains deep organizing power. The underlying pressures are not easily reversed — Bolivia is short of foreign currency, its natural gas exports have collapsed, inflation is at a four-decade high, and fuel remains scarce.