Bolivia’s Paz promises cabinet reshuffle as protests deepen pressure on government
Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz said on Wednesday that he will reshuffle his cabinet and create an economic and social council as his government faces intensifying protests over fuel shortages, wages and the country’s deepening economic crisis.
The supplied reports say the demonstrations began about three weeks earlier, when Bolivians started blocking roads and protesting to demand salary increases, stable fuel supplies and steps to ease what both outlets describe as one of the worst economic crises in decades. What started as pressure over living conditions has widened into calls for Paz to resign only six months after taking office.
Paz’s public response was a measured attempt to reduce the temperature without conceding to every demand. He said his administration needed “a cabinet that must be able to listen,” and said he intended to set up a council to give Indigenous groups, farmers, miners and other workers a way to influence policy. The France 24 report said he did not offer details. Both reports make clear that he was also firm about not negotiating with looters or vandals, a reference to the violence and arson that marked protests in La Paz earlier in the week.
The protests have become politically loaded because they also expose the fault lines around Paz’s free-market reforms and fuel subsidy cuts. Since taking office in November, he has been under pressure to stabilise an economy under strain. His opponents accuse him of squeezing ordinary people while failing to protect fuel supplies. Supporters of the government, meanwhile, frame the roadblocks and street mobilisations as attempts to destabilise the state.
The supply excerpts show that not all demonstrations have turned violent. On Wednesday, a march of Indigenous farmers and transport workers in La Paz passed off peacefully, a sharp contrast to clashes earlier in the week between protesters and police. That contrast matters because it suggests the crisis is still being fought on both the streets and in public messaging: one side trying to show order, the other trying to prove that the country’s social contract is fraying.
The international angle is also significant. The United States said it backs Bolivia’s constitutional government, while Colombia’s ambassador was expelled over what La Paz called interference by President Gustavo Petro. Petro responded by warning that the expulsion pointed toward extremism. Those exchanges show the unrest is being interpreted abroad as more than a domestic dispute, especially because Paz’s election ended two decades of socialist rule associated with the Movement for Socialism and former president Evo Morales.
The immediate crisis remains practical as much as political. Roadblocks around La Paz have disrupted supplies, and the government has had to fly in food from other parts of the country. The combination of shortages, protest escalation and the promise of cabinet changes suggests Paz is trying to buy time while signalling responsiveness. Whether that is enough will depend on whether the protests can be defused before the economic pain spreads further.
