MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Monday, May 18th 2026 - 18:31 UTC
The march, described by its organizers as a “pro-Evo and coca-grower” mobilization, is made up of peasant, indigenous, and labor sectors
The Bolivian government on Monday denounced the presence of “armed groups” in the march of peasant farmers and supporters of former president Evo Morales that descended on the city of La Paz, the seat of the executive and legislative branches, after a six-day walk from the highlands, demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz. Deputy Interior Minister Hernán Paredes estimated at “somewhat more than ten thousand people” the column of protesters that entered the capital from the neighboring city of El Alto, in what authorities described as an attempt by the former leader to destabilize the executive six months into his term.
“Unfortunately, it has been identified that there are groups that have moved on to the use of weapons. That has us worried,” said presidential spokesperson José Luis Gálvez. The official singled out the responsibility of a former Defense Ministry official identified as Bernabé G.P., who currently chairs the conflict committee of the “Ponchos Rojos,” a radical faction of Aymara peasant farmers from the La Paz highlands characterized by a militarized form of organization and by the display of antique weapons during protests. Gálvez circulated a video shared in recent hours on social media in which some twenty alleged members of the group appear on an Andean road brandishing weapons and chanting slogans referring to “civil war.”
