Bulletin N°64 2026 For several weeks, Bolivia has been shaken by a wave of exceptionally powerful mobilizations. Strikes, road blockades, marches, and symbolic occupations are bringing together miners, farmers, teachers, transporters, indigenous communities, and working-class neighborhoods. Led primarily by the Bolivian Workers' Central (COB), this broad movement is demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz. Its scale and determination are reminiscent of the major cycles of struggle in the early 2000s.
The immediate trigger was Law 1720, an agrarian counter-reform that allowed the seizure of peasant lands for the benefit of agribusiness. Anger quickly broadened to include other demands: higher wages to combat inflation, opposition to privatizations, defense of public services, and popular control over natural resources. The slogan "Bolivia no se vende" (Bolivia is not for sale) encapsulates the aspiration for national sovereignty, workers' rights, and the self-determination of the people.
A one-liter bag of milk, imported from Peru, cost 6.5 bolivianos (about 80 euro cents) in the spring of 2025. Today, it costs 10.5 bolivianos (1.30 euros). Bus fares have doubled. Subsidies for gasoline at the pump have been eliminated, and rents have skyrocketed. Teachers and miners are demanding higher wages, 20% more to compensate for rampant inflation. Furthermore, President Paz, elected last November, representing the right wing, large landowners, and US multinationals, abolished the wealth tax while simultaneously announcing austerity measures and the elimination of fuel subsidies. Inflation is severely eroding real wages. The purchasing power of an average family has decreased by an average of 30 to 40%.
On the 22nd day of the strike, May 25th, the mobilization gained momentum. The president's only concession was to announce a 50% salary reduction for himself and his ministers, a symbolic measure unrelated to the strikers' demands, presented as his government's contribution to the national "effort ." He reiterated his refusal to negotiate. With the police overwhelmed, the president declared a state of siege on May 25th and sent in the army to dismantle the workers' barricades surrounding the capital. The population dispersed, then regrouped and re-established roadblocks in other locations on the same highways leading into the capital. More broadly, the strength of the social protest's organization is noteworthy. The entire mobilization was prepared and planned collectively, down to the smallest detail. At the roadblocks, the strikers are allowing just enough tomatoes, onions, and potatoes to pass through so that the situation remains bearable for the community. And just enough gasoline so that bus drivers and taxi drivers don't find themselves completely without income.
The general strike currently shaking Bolivia is not a spontaneous movement, but the result of decades of militant struggle against imperialist exploitation and neocolonialism. Indigenous masses, rural communities, major mining federations, unions, and activists from Evo Morales' Movement for Socialism (MAS) are paralyzing the country's economy. It's worth recalling that Evo Morales, overthrown by an ultra-reactionary coup, was forced into temporary exile in Mexico. The subsequent presidential election brought the MAS (Morales's party) back to power, but with representatives of the party's right wing, led by Luis Arce. Like the rest of the Latin American "left" for the past twenty years, Arce hesitated to implement radical measures and alienated the working class. As a result, he was soundly defeated in the presidential election, which ultimately saw Paz's victory, despite Morales and his supporters' call for abstention, which was indeed widespread. The faction of the MAS that remained loyal to the revolutionary line, embodied by Morales, is playing a crucial role in this struggle. They have issued a 90-day ultimatum to Rodrigo Paz's regime, demanding his resignation or the holding of new elections, and have threatened to escalate their actions if their demands are not met.
The leaders of Western imperialist countries call for "respect for democracy," meaning they support the reactionary Paz, and the media , particularly in France, maintain a near-total silence on what is happening in Bolivia, or evoke chaos by broadcasting images of violence, even at the risk of showing those of the police and the army. Bolivia has entered a new period of social confrontation, the outcome of which will depend on the balance of power between the organized people and the ruling classes supported by imperialism.
Today Bolivian workers are reminding us of a fundamental truth and sending a message to the workers of the world, and the activists of the CGT, who will be in congress next week, should listen: the only progressive way forward lies in the independent organization of the workers' and people's movement, in the unity of workers in towns and villages, and in the struggle for a socialist transformation of society.
The Revolutionary Communist Party fully supports the demands of the Bolivian proletariat and stands with them in their essential struggle.