La Paz (AFP) – Bolivian protests calling for center-right President Rodrigo Paz to resign intensified Monday as demonstrators swarmed government buildings and a protest leader faced terrorism charges over the unrest.
Issued on: 19/05/2026 - 05:42
3 min Reading time
Riot police clashed with protesters for hours, tear gas shrouded the streets of La Paz, shops were shuttered and supplies ran low due to protest blockades choking routes into the capital city.Thousands of farmers, miners, teachers, workers from other sectors and Indigenous communities have led weeks-long protests calling for wage increases, economic stability and an end to the privatization of state-owned companies.The Andean nation is suffering its worst economic ordeal in the past four decades, with year-on-year inflation hitting 14 percent in April.While calm had largely returned to La Paz by Monday evening, those on the streets are furious with Paz, a conservative who assumed the presidency less than six months ago following two decades of socialist rule.He scrapped two-decade-old fuel subsidies that had drained the treasury's international dollar reserves, but so far he has failed to stabilize fuel supplies."We want him to resign because he's incompetent. Bolivia is going through a moment of chaos," 60-year-old farmer Ivan Alarcon, who traveled around 90 kilometers (60 miles) from Caquiaviri in western Bolivia to protest, told AFP.Earlier Monday, riot police used tear gas to prevent protesting miners from entering La Paz's main square, where government buildings are located, while the demonstrators hurled explosives and stones back at them.
