Bolivia’s general strike intensifies

Bolivian president Rodrigo Paz with president of Equador, Daniel Noboa (Photo: Flickr/ Isaac Castillo)

Roadblocks and mass protests brought Bolivia’s major cities to a halt last week amid a nationwide strike of miners and rural workers.

Protesters marched on motorways and faced down riot police and tear gas.

Miners set off sticks of dynamite last Thursday in the capital La Paz, in an apparent attempt to get into the presidential palace.

Unions of miners and rural workers in Bolivia launched a general strike to force out right wing president Rodrigo Paz.

Teachers and transport workers have now joined the action.

David Mamani, leader of the mining union FSTMB, said the action “was the decision of the rank and file”.

Led by peasant and farming organisations, a 20-day march started late last month opposed new Law 1720 that would have undermined Indigenous peoples’ and peasants’ right to the land. The state was forced to repeal the law last week.

The leader of CSUTCB peasants’ union, Oscar Cardozo, declared, “Our life is collective, not individual. The land must be respected. It’s not for sale.”

The demand over land ownership has grown into demands for diesel, pay and an end to austerity measures and privatisation.

Now protesters and strikers are demanding a 20 percent pay rise.

At least 67 highways have been blocked across seven provinces. In response, Paz has deployed 3,500 soldiers and police officers.

Mamani has said that Paz is “incapable of resolving the country’s problems.”

Bolivia used to be a major exporter of natural gas, but the reserves ran dry and now it is an importer of fuel.

The global oil shortage caused by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has resulted in surging inflation.

The country is now facing its worst economic crisis in decades.

Paz came to power in November 2025 after more than two decades of a leftist reformist government.

Evo Morales of the Movement Towards Socialism (Mas) was elected president in 2005 on the back of a revolt against neoliberalism.

Mas reduced poverty and challenged US imperialism.

But it had no plan to break with the logic of the profit system and ended up making concessions to corporations.

Last year Mas faced a shattering defeat with the election of Paz.

But hope has revived with resistance on the streets.