Bolivia’s conservative president said he had moved Wednesday to “strengthen” the army’s role in quelling anti-government protests that have paralyzed cities, caused widespread shortages and threatened to topple his fledgling government.
Facing demands to step down, Rodrigo Paz said he had prepared a bill that would empower the military to tackle demonstrations and restore order.
The bill “is intended to strengthen the institutions,” he said at the swearing in of a new defense minister, and “to strengthen our armed forces in their actions.”
On Wednesday in La Paz, thousands of Bolivians queued for hours to buy chicken, a stark sign of how much families are struggling with shortages that have been worsened by protests.
“If I were him, I’d pack my suitcase and leave. As Bolivians, they are killing us already” Elvira Laura Quispe, one of those waiting, told AFP.
“This damned government has no heart.”
Paz entered office a little over seven months ago, after a landmark election that ended two decades of hard left rule.
He moved quickly to restore severed relations with the United States and introduced sweeping economic reforms, including cutting fuel subsidies that ravaged public finances.
Fierce backlash has boiled over across Bolivia, including a month of mass demonstrations calling for him to resign and militant roadblocks that have caused severe food, medicine and fuel shortages.
“This government is incompetent. It’s been 34 days of blockades with no solution” said dairy farmer Hugo Calvo Catalan, protesting in the city of Cochabamba Wednesday.
Paz’s government was rocked anew this week when his ministers of defense and education resigned.
The 58-year-old politician has accused protestors of attempting a coup and refused to rule out declaring a state of emergency — which would curb some civil liberties including freedom of movement and assembly.
“The immediate task is to restore normality,” said new Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano during his swearing in Wednesday.
“Dialogue is always open, but those who refuse to engage in dialogue cannot be allowed to paralyze the country,” he added.
Authorities have recorded almost 100 roadblocks nationwide and the deaths of seven people, who did not receive timely medical care.
The Paz administration accuses former socialist president Evo Morales — in hiding from a warrant for suspected sexual abuse of a minor — of fomenting the unrest.
The former socialist leader, who governed from 2006 to 2019, told AFP in a recent interview that Bolivians are furious because Paz oversees “a government that is utterly submissive” to Washington.
“I am totally convinced this rebellion is against the neo-liberal model and the neo-colonial state,” he said.
By Agencies
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