LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) \u2014 Protesters streamed into Bolivia\u2019s capital, throats hoarse from chanting and feet blistered from a week of walking along the national highway.<\/p>\n
The throngs of street vendors in the South American country\u2019s vast informal work force ended their nearly 100-kilometer (60-mile) march from Bolivia\u2019s mountain-rimmed plains with a call that summoned years of growing anger over the nation\u2019s dangerously depleting foreign-exchange reserves: \u201cWe want dollars!\u201d <\/p>\n
With prices surging, dollars scarce and lines snaking away from fuel-strapped gas stations, protests in Bolivia have intensified over the economy\u2019s precipitous decline from one of the continent\u2019s fastest-growing<\/a><\/span> two decades ago to one of its most crisis-stricken today<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe can change the country because we are the engine of production,\u201d Roberto R\u00edos Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez, secretary-general of Bolivia\u2019s Confederation of Merchants, said as weary protesters broke for lunch around him in the capital\u2019s traffic-snarled center. \u201cThe government doesn\u2019t listen. That\u2019s why we\u2019re in the streets.\u201d <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FILE – Merchants shout slogans during an anti-government march against the banks\u2019 lack of U.S. dollars, in La Paz, Bolivia, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo\/Juan Karita, File)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/bsp-read-more><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Bolivia\u2019s financial quagmire stems, at least in part, from an unprecedented rift at the highest levels of the governing party. <\/p>\n President Luis Arce<\/a><\/span> and his one-time ally, leftist icon and former President Evo Morales<\/a><\/span>, are battling for the future of Bolivia\u2019s splintering Movement for Socialism, known by its Spanish acronym MAS, ahead of elections in 2025. <\/p>\n The political fight has paralyzed the government\u2019s efforts to deal with the deepening economic despair and analysts warn that the social unrest<\/a><\/span> could explode in the historically turbulent nation of 12 million people. <\/p>\n Cracks in the governing party opened in 2019<\/a><\/span>, when Morales, then Bolivia\u2019s first Indigenous president, ran for an unconstitutional third term<\/a><\/span>. He won a contested vote plagued by allegations of fraud, setting off mass protests<\/a><\/span> that caused 36 deaths and prompted Morales to resign and flee the country.<\/p>\n After an interim government took control<\/a><\/span> in what MAS called a coup<\/a><\/span>, Morales\u2019 chosen successor, Arce, won election<\/a><\/span> on a campaign promise to restore prosperity to Bolivia, once Latin America\u2019s mainstay source of natural gas. <\/p>\n Arce had been Morales\u2019 finance minister who oversaw years of strong growth and low inflation, but assuming the presidency in 2020, he encountered a bleak economic reckoning from the coronavirus pandemic<\/a><\/span>. Diminished gas production sealed the end of Bolivia\u2019s budget-busting economic model.<\/p>\n Still hugely popular among Bolivia\u2019s Indigenous communities, coca growers<\/a><\/span> and union workers, Morales saw an opportunity. After returning from exile<\/a><\/span>, the charismatic populist announced plans last year to run in the 2025 vote \u2014 setting himself on a collision course with Arce, who is expected to seek re-election. <\/p>\n \u201cBolivia has an Indigenous majority and people will instinctively support someone like Morales based on what he represents,\u201d said Diego von Vacano, an expert in Bolivian politics at Texas A&M University and former informal adviser to Arce. \u201cNow they have the push factor, the lack of success of the Arce administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Morales drew tens of thousands of loyalists to Cochabamba southeast of La Paz, galvanizing his rural stronghold.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to win the elections and we\u2019re going to save Bolivia,\u201d a triumphant Morales bellowed in a stadium filled with cheering supporters waving wiphalas, the checkerboards of bright colors to represent Bolivia\u2019s many peoples. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FILE – Supporters of Bolivia\u2019s President Luis Arce wave Wiphala flags during an event marking the 29th anniversary of the ruling party, Movement Toward Socialism, MAS, in La Paz, Bolivia, March 28, 2024. (AP Photo\/Juan Karita, File)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/bsp-read-more><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Arce disputes the legitimacy of Morales\u2019 campaign, arguing a 2023 constitutional court ruling bars him from running. <\/p>\n Legal experts say it\u2019s not so clear-cut. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen both the politicians<\/a><\/span> manipulate the courts to decide political issues that have major bearing on the constitution,\u201d said Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez Veltz\u00e9, a Bolivian judge who served as president in 2005-2006.<\/p>\n Morales, who proclaimed in his speech that \u201cwe have complied with the rules,\u201d has threatened to unleash mass unrest if he is disqualified from running.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, with the cash crunch denying access to dollars to pay suppliers abroad, Bolivian merchants have produced extraordinary scenes on the border with Brazil and Peru by clamoring to buy the U.S. currency at inflated prices in the neighboring countries. <\/p>\n When exchange shops in La Paz ran dry last year<\/a><\/span>, Bolivians waited in line all night outside the Central Bank to get hard currency.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a striking contrast to Bolivia\u2019s boom at the turn of the 21st century. Buoyed by a windfall of export revenue, Morales\u2019 government pulled the poverty rate down<\/a><\/span> to 15%, expanded the middle class and built up sprawling cities and roads.<\/p>\n Trouble began in 2014 when commodity prices plunged and the government dipped into its currency reserves to sustain spending. Then it drew on its gold reserves and even sold its dollar bonds locally. <\/p>\n \u201cWe ate up the savings and now we are scraping the pot,\u201d said Gonzalo Ch\u00e1vez, economics professor at Bolivia\u2019s Catholic University. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FILE – Pedestrians walk by a currency exchange shop in La Paz, Bolivia, June 12, 2024. (AP Photo\/Juan Karita, File)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/bsp-read-more><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n With the government forking out $2 billion a year to import heavily subsidized gasoline in an effort to quell public discontent, the squeeze has tightened. The Fitch rating agency in February downgraded Bolivia\u2019s debt deeper into junk territory, assigning it a CCC rating.<\/p>\n And the fight over MAS is exacerbating economic woes<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n Morales\u2019 allies in Bolivia\u2019s Congress have consistently thwarted Arce\u2019s attempts to take on debt that would relieve the pressure. Bolivia sits on a treasure trove of lithium<\/a><\/span>, but lawmakers won\u2019t give Arce approval to let foreign companies extract it. <\/p>\n Arce calls the gridlock an \u201ceconomic boycott\u201d aimed at subverting his presidency.<\/p>\n Seeking to ease investor fears, Finance Minister Marcelo Montenegro denies there is any crisis. But the long lines of frustrated motorists outside gas stations suggest otherwise. In recent days, angry truckers have blocked roads and burned tires.<\/p>\n \u201cArce has dismantled our social organizations while abandoning his management of the economy,\u201d said Jorge Cucho, an Indigenous leader and activist. \u201cPrices have increased by 70%. Our salaries are no longer enough to go to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n The tensions tearing at MAS offer Bolivia\u2019s opposition<\/a><\/span> its first real shot at power since Morales won an unprecedented electoral majority in 2005. Centrist and conservative politicians have jumped into the field. But the opposition is fractured and its legitimacy is in question, with dozens of its politicians behind bars<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n
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