A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #45 - Bolivia: Miners, indigenous communities, and workers protest Rodrigo Paz's neoliberal government. (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Bolivia is experiencing one of the deepest social and political crises 
in decades. For weeks, the country has been rocked by strikes, 
roadblocks, popular marches, and violent clashes between protesters and 
government forces. On the front lines are miners' unions, peasant 
organizations, Aymara and Quechua indigenous communities, the Ponchos 
Rojos, teachers, transport workers, and sectors of the Bolivian Workers' 
Central (COB). ---- President Rodrigo Paz's government responded by 
deploying around 3,500 soldiers and police around La Paz to quell the 
demonstrations, leading to clashes, arrests, and numerous injuries. 
According to several international sources, miners' marches also 
confronted police with dynamite as the protesters attempted to reach the 
capital's political center. ( Reuters , AP News )

Social anger stems from a devastating economic crisis: rising inflation; 
shortages of fuel and essential goods; collapsing foreign exchange 
reserves; skyrocketing cost of living; and cuts in public fuel subsidies.

The Paz government, elected in 2025 on an openly neoliberal and pro-US 
platform, initiated privatizations, liberalizations, and a harsh 
austerity policy. It eliminated universal fuel subsidies, causing 
increases of up to 160% in the prices of gasoline, diesel, 
transportation, and food.

But one of the main detonators of the mobilization was the so-called Law 
1720 , perceived by social movements as an attempt to dismantle the 
territorial and collective gains achieved during the governments of Evo 
Morales' Movement for Socialism.

According to unions and indigenous communities, Law 1720 would pave the 
way for the privatization of community lands, mortgage expropriations, 
and the sale of indigenous territories to foreign corporations to 
facilitate the expansion of mining and energy extractivism, and the 
destruction of indigenous and peasant autonomy.

This is why the struggle in Bolivia is not just economic: it is a 
struggle for land, for popular sovereignty and against a new neoliberal 
and neocolonial offensive (by the US right and their lackeys like Milei)

Particularly significant is the presence of the Ponchos Rojos, a 
historic Aymara organization that was already a protagonist in the 
popular mobilizations against neoliberalism and in the struggles that 
led to the rise of Morales in the 2000s. ( Reuters )

Popular organizations openly accuse the Paz government of seeking to 
transform Bolivia into an economic colony subordinated to the interests 
of the United States and multinational extractive corporations. It is no 
coincidence that the new government has reestablished relations with 
Israel, strengthened ties with Washington, and opened the country's 
strategic resources to foreign capital.

Even after the formal withdrawal of Law 1720, strikes continue. For 
Bolivian workers, the problem isn't a single law, but the entire 
economic model imposed by the government:

privatizations;

austerity;

repression;

sell-off of natural resources;

attack on collective and social rights.

For this reason, the general mobilization is calling for the 
government's resignation and is ready to escalate the conflict, which 
has been ongoing for about two weeks and began with the main access 
routes to the capital completely blocked.

As libertarian communists, we can only express our full internationalist 
solidarity with the struggles of workers, indigenous communities, and 
popular movements in Bolivia.

Their resistance once again demonstrates a fundamental truth: 
neoliberalism does not bring freedom, but impoverishment, repression, 
and colonial dependence. Faced with governments selling off territories, 
rights, and resources to multinationals, the response once again comes 
from popular self-organization, strikes, mutualism, and collective struggle.

The words spoken during the mobilizations by peasant and worker leaders 
perfectly summarize the meaning of the ongoing battle:

"Our life is collective, not individual. The land must be respected; it 
is not for sale."

And again:

"Perhaps we will discover that we don't need political leaders-we just 
need to organize for the common good."

In a continent marked by new neoliberal offensives, social repression, 
and extractivist devastation, the struggle of the Bolivian people speaks 
to all the exploited of the world.

Internationalist solidarity is not an abstract slogan: it means 
recognizing the struggles of Bolivian miners, indigenous farmers, and 
striking workers as the same battle against exploitation, 
authoritarianism, and capitalist domination that affects every country.

For this reason:
We stand with the Bolivian miners, with the indigenous communities, with 
the strikers, against repression and neoliberalism. Always.

http://www.alternativalibertaria.org
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