Fresh violence has shaken Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz, where violent confrontations broke out Thursday between law enforcement and protesting miners, marking the second consecutive week of rolling nationwide civil unrest that threatens the young administration of President Rodrigo Paz.
According to on-site reports, police deployed tear gas to scatter the crowd of thousands of mining workers, who had advanced toward the seat of national government, the Palacio Quemado, and set off small dynamite blasts to clear their path. The use of homemade explosives has grown increasingly frequent across recent days of unrest, as demonstrators escalate their tactics to push their demands.
President Paz, who took office at the end of 2024, ended nearly two decades of uninterrupted single-party rule in the Andean nation when he was inaugurated, promising a new chapter of governance and reform. But just months into his term, he is facing a rapidly growing crisis that has paralyzed the capital and spread across the country.
The mass mobilization of miners is the most high-profile in a wave of overlapping protests that have brought central La Paz to a standstill. Miners initially gathered to demand revisions to national labor policies and increased access to subsidized fuel, but as the demonstration dragged on, chants calling for Paz’s resignation grew louder among the crowd.
The unrest has drawn in multiple groups in recent days, compounding pressure on the new government. Earlier on Thursday, thousands of rural public school teachers joined a separate march through the city center, calling for substantial pay increases. Combined with widespread road blockades erected by protest groups across the region, the overlapping mobilizations have completely choked off movement and normal activity in the capital.
The current wave of demonstrations first began when rural farmers launched protests to oppose a recently passed law that allowed for private land to be used as collateral for mortgage loans. Responding to early pressure, President Paz announced a presidential decree Wednesday evening that formally annulled the controversial legislation and appealed directly to demonstrators to stand down and end their blockades and marches. Despite the concession, protests have only accelerated and expanded, with new groups joining the movement to push a broad set of additional grievances against the new administration.