Road blockades that had paralyzed Bolivia for more than seven weeks came to an end on Tuesday, authorities announced, following widespread protests led by farmers, indigenous communities and workers, whose main demand was the resignation of center-right President Rodrigo Paz.
Improved food and fuel supplies are already being felt in cities such as La Paz, the administrative capital, as well as in neighboring El Alto, the areas hit hardest by the situation.
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At the most tense stage of the protests, around 100 blockades had been set up across the Andean country.
On Saturday, the center-right president declared a state of emergency, banned demonstrations for 90 days and ordered police and the army to clear the roads.
“Our roads have been freed,” Public Works Minister Mauricio Zamora wrote on X.
The United States and around fifteen other countries in the Americas expressed their “deep concern” over the impact the road blockades had on Bolivia’s population and economy, saying that efforts to “undermine and overthrow” the “legitimate and democratically elected government” constituted a “serious threat to constitutional order” in the country.
“We support the constitutionally elected government and call on the organizations that are mobilizing to prioritize dialogue within the constitutional framework,” the statement went on, denouncing the “violent minority.”
In addition to the United States and Bolivia, the statement was also signed by the governments of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Paraguay, Peru and Panama.
During the general assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), being held in his country, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said that drug traffickers were financing the “radical left” in Bolivia.
According to him, organized crime is “trying to overthrow the constitutional order through violent and illegal means.”
Paz’s government accuses former socialist president Evo Morales (2006-2019) of organizing the mass protests against it and financing them with proceeds from drug trafficking, without presenting evidence for these claims.
The remaining blockades, all set up in Cochabamba (center), a stronghold of the indigenous leader, had already been removed after Morales announced on Monday that the demonstrations had been suspended until further notice.
