Bolivia: Miserable Presidents and Institutions of Dynamite

By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 29/06/2026

Guest columnist.
Share:     

In Bolivia, 51 days of road blockades have ended, but: is this the end of the conflict or merely a pause? Is it truly a triumph of the government's negotiating strategy or a capitulation very well disguised under the State of Emergency?

To answer both questions, it is necessary to carefully analyze the agreement between the Bolivian Workers' Central and the national government, let's see:

In point 3, the government commits to guaranteeing social protest and union activity. However, what the COB (Bolivian Workers' Center) has achieved is impunity to continue its violent actions and road blockades, which are simply crimes against humanity. Or can one call leaving the city of La Paz without food for almost two months a social protest?

In point 4, the government commits to maintaining public enterprises. I believe it's unnecessary to clarify that this clause ties the executive branch's hands in implementing any economic plan, since state-owned enterprises are one of the main causes of the fiscal deficit, and therefore, of the national economic crisis. If the first six months of Rodrigo Paz's administration were a continuation of Evo Morales's model, we can now be certain that this waste will continue until 2030.

Point 11, the government commits to holding consultations on high-impact regulations. The question here is: with whom should the government consult? Well, with the COB (Bolivian Workers' Center) and other groups of highway robbers and road blockaders. Basically, it's throwing overboard what little institutional framework remained in the country, because they are demonstrating that a well-organized group of violent individuals has the capacity, through extortion, to be above the law, even above electoral processes.

In short, contrary to the narrative of the central government, which portrays all of the above as a triumph of its dialogue strategy, what Rodrigo Paz did was hand over his head and his government to the Socialism of the 21st Century and its narco-terrorist satellites operating in Bolivia.

But he wasn't the first, nor the only one.

In January 2002, Evo Morales's coca growers violently seized Cochabamba and brutally murdered police officers Wilson Espinoza, Ely Pinaya, and Antonio Gutiérrez, as well as army sub-lieutenant Marcelo Trujillo. Tuto Quiroga, the country's president at the time, promised to enforce the law against Morales and his militia, but after a meeting at the Archbishop's Palace, he capitulated to Evo, stating verbatim: "I will not be responsible for the birth of a guerrilla movement in the Chapare."

The impunity that Tuto gave to Evo allowed the big fish from Chapare to travel to Cuba, Venezuela and Libya to organize the next violent conflicts.

Carlos Mesa's betrayal of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada during the 2003 coup and the negotiation of the October Agenda place the La Paz-born historian among the worst figures in Bolivian history of the last three decades. Mesa's government was, quite simply, a prelude, a kind of welcoming ceremony, to Castro-Chavismo in Bolivia, since, aside from impunity and the dismantling of the Armed Forces and the National Police, it paved the way for a Constituent Assembly.

Bolivia is a country bleeding from the blows inflicted by corrupt presidents and the explosions caused by narco-terrorists' dynamite. Meanwhile, instead of focusing on our businesses and financial future, we citizens have to wait and hope that a group of vandals doesn't decide to block highways, set fire to government offices, murder police officers, and try to starve us to death. What a poor country!

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».