"We'll fight to the death to remove this government" - Bolivia's workers rebellion enters day 11
For 11 days, miners, teachers, farmers, transport workers and indigenous communities have been blockading the roads into La Paz. Not because they're against reform. Because the reform is landing entirely on them.
Rodrigo Paz took office six months ago promising to end Bolivia's worst economic crisis in four decades. What that meant in practice: scrapping a fuel subsidy that had kept prices stable since 2006. Diesel nearly tripled overnight. Transport workers say the cheap replacement fuel the government sourced damaged over 10,000 vehicles. The people most exposed to rising costs - the ones who drive trucks, mine cooperatives, grow coca, teach in rural schools - are the ones paying for a crisis they didn't create.
The Ponchos Rojos, one of Bolivia's most prominent indigenous federations, put it plainly: "We demand the immediate resignation of this treasonous and incapable government. We'll fight to the death, brothers, to remove this treasonous government."
That's not hyperbole. Miners were setting off dynamite sticks outside the presidential palace last week. On Saturday, Paz responded with Operation "Corredor humanitario": 2,500 police and 1,000 soldiers to clear the blockades, 57 people arrested. The stated reason was getting food and medicine into the capital. The actual situation is a government trying to survive contact with the people it governs.
The government reached a deal with miners after 12 hours of talks. The blockades haven't fully cleared. The COB's general strike is still active.
Fuel price before subsidy cut: diesel 3.72 bolivianos. After: 9.80. Inflation: 14%. Blockades at peak: 67. Troops deployed Saturday: 3,500. Arrested: 57.