MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Tuesday, May 19th 2026 - 12:10 UTC
The center of La Paz turned on Monday into the stage of a more than three-hour pitched battle in which thousands of salaried miners and peasants clashed with police forces trying to prevent their entry to Plaza Murillo, the seat of Bolivia's executive and legislative branches. The protesters threw dynamite charges at the police, who responded with tear gas. The cordons were not overrun, and the Army, deployed around the square as the last line of defense, did not intervene directly. The mobilization is the largest challenge President Rodrigo Paz has faced since taking office six months ago.
The protest brings together labor unions, miners, Aymara indigenous communities from the La Paz highlands, and neighborhood councils from El Alto, articulated around a “non-betrayal pact” that rejects dialogue with the government and demands the president's resignation. The protesters denounce the economic direction of the new administration and the composition of the cabinet with representatives of business and agro-industrial elites. The “march for life to save Bolivia,” called by former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) from the Chapare cocalero region of Cochabamba, reached the capital on Monday after a six-day walk from the highlands and joined the protests that have been sustained for three weeks.
