▲ Saucepan banging yesterday in the center of La Paz against the government of President Luis Arce. Don’t starve usthe protesters shouted.Photo Ap
AFP, AP and Prensa Latina
The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 20, 2024, p. 22
La Paz., With pots, kitchen utensils and banners, hundreds of merchants and artisans paralyzed the center of La Paz yesterday to demand that President Luis Arce provide solutions to the shortage of dollars that, according to the protesters, is causing the rise in prices of the family basket, supplies and merchandise they need; otherwise, they threatened to go on strike with roadblocks starting in September.
Arce also signed into law the annulment of primaries for the 2025 general elections, which represents a new setback for his rival, former President Evo Morales, in his attempt to run for a new term.
After several years of stability, the economic deterioration began with a shortage of dollars more than a year ago. This currency circulated freely alongside the local currency, but began to be in short supply after the fall in natural gas exports, due to a stagnation in production.
The government used those dollars to import gasoline and diesel and sell them at subsidized prices. Now fuel is also in short supply.
Yesterday, the president announced the promotion, through supreme decrees, of the direct importation of fuels so that individuals, industries, unions and other entities that require it can buy fuels outside the country.
In turn, informal traders, who supply most of the Bolivian market with basic products, need dollars to import merchandise from neighboring countries. But now the price of the US currency on the parallel market has risen by more than 50 percent, which has an impact on the cost of the basic basket of goods.
President Arce, stop lying. Where are the dollars?. Don’t starve us. Traitor Maplechanted the protesters, banging their pots and pans.
The government is in dialogue with all sectors and is receiving proposals to alleviate the crisis. Arce must face economic problems with the ruling party, the Movement Towards Socialism, divided and without a majority in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly.
On the other hand, yesterday the president of Bolivia sealed, by supreme decree, the cancellation of exceptional form from the internal election process of the parties.
The primaries were incorporated into the law on the matter in 2018, but the political forces and the electoral judges agreed to cancel their celebration – for this one time only – to make way for the judicial elections on December 1.
Beyond the overloaded electoral calendar in Bolivia, the decision represents a new blow for the former president. Evo Morales has been disqualified by the judges from running again, but he is still trying – with the support of a wing of his party – to reverse the legal impediment through popular pressure, and the election of new electoral judges to review the ruling against him.
In his strategy, Morales intended to compete in the primaries with Arce, his former finance minister.
Following the annulment of the primaries, Arce is now seeking approval of a referendum on presidential re-election, which in theory could bury Morales’ aspirations to run for the executive for a fourth term.
The differences between the two also became apparent during the military uprising that took place in La Paz on June 26. While Arce claimed that it was an attempted coup, Morales spoke of a self-coup to improve the presidential image.