Indigenous Led-Anti-Austerity Protests Rock Bolivia

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]This is democracyow democracynow.org.

[00:00:02]I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Mass protests in Bolivia have marked one month as thousands continue to take the streets of Le Paz and other cities demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz, a Trump ally who's aligned himself with Latin America's right-wing leaders, labor and indigenous groups, other protesters are calling on PA's government to roll back austerity measures amid soaring costs of food, fuel, and medicine.

[00:00:29]We want the government to solve this problem, to fix it once and for all, and to do so wholeheartedly. The babies are starving. We can't afford to buy food.

[00:00:39]We seniors no longer have the money to buy food, and I have my granddaughters who are orphans. I'm asking for a solution. Earlier this week, Bolivia's Congress approved the possible deployment of armed forces to suppress the mobilizations, a move that would also help President P declare a state of emergency in Bolivia. For more we go to Coocha Bamba, Bolivia, where we're joined by Katherine Letterberg, director of Andian Information Network. We thank you so much for being with us. Lay out the escalating protest, why people are in the streets demanding President Paz's resignation.

[00:01:14]>> Thanks so much for having me. I I I think that you summed it up nicely when you said it's about people feeding their families and uh a political exclusion, a racial exclusion. Remember that Bolivia is a country where for 19 years indigenous people and social movements enjoyed equal rights and and political inclusion with the election of right-wing government Rodrigo Pas even though he was elected as a lastditch alternative by many of the protesting sectors. What we see is a return to the neoliberal policy to these austerity shock measures and uh the removal of fuel subsidies and it's generated a great deal of poverty especially for Bolivian's working class and subsistence farmers >> and could uh from what I can tell during the last few weeks this uprising in Bolivia is perhaps the most uh important people's uprising in the world right now. Uh could you talk about how the movement grew so quickly given the fact that this president's only been in office for 6 months?

[00:02:22]>> Yes, of course. You know, social movements in Bolivia have always been very well organized. indigenous communities. We're talking about a country that was colonized, but that colonization was never able to break down those strong social ties, uh, cultural ties or or a union movement that, you know, eventually helped the first indigenous president come to power. It's something that's been brewing for a very long time. But there's a huge uh break between what Pos promised and what he's done uh in practice which is elect uh you know select a white upper middle class cabinet with only two women uh reject uh any genuine dialogue, reject interaction or with the Bolivian social movements or even have any empathy for people and what they're going through daytoday as they try to feed their families. You know, it's not enough to put on a poncho for your campaign and then forget about your electorate.

[00:03:30]>> And what about Pas's claims that former president Evo Morales is behind this uh uh this uprising or these protests?

[00:03:39]>> Well, I think they're infuriating. I I think that you know Eva Morales has had a a long career as a social movement leader and as former president he definitely opposes the actions of Rodrigo Pas. But the sectors in protest are not directly affiliated with Morales. You have a you had a small group of cocoa growers uh from Morales's base in La Pass for only five days. But it's a convenient one. There's the right-wing political class in Bolivia that's never developed governance strategies that find it convenient to blame Morales. They they they want to target him. They speak frequently as arrest and it it dovetales nicely with a very close and strong alignment with the Trump administration because as we know the US drug enforcement administration and consecutive right-wing US administrations have targeted and scapegoed Morales. This is not about him and it infuriates protesters further because it's a way to not address meaningful demands.

[00:04:45]>> And very quickly, you're in uh Coochamba where Democracy Now was. We interviewed at the time President Ava Morales at the people's climate summit there. But if you can address uh the allegations that uh um that the government is making that this is an attempted coup um and also talk about PA's alignment with Trump with Marco Rubio uh recently saying on social media, let there be no mistake, the US stands squarely in support of Bolivia's legitimate constitutional government. We will not allow criminals and drug traffickers to overthrow democratically elected leaders.

[00:05:25]The words of Michael that explosive and that that toxic narrative is very helpful to the pass administration but it's in lie of any meaningful attempt for dialogue. I don't think we found any ties. The US has looked for decades of ties David Morales for drug trafficking.

[00:05:44]Certainly these protesters have no ties to drug trafficking. It's absurd that that people would suggest that drug the drug business in Bolivia or in anywhere in the world has the need to direct any protest. You know, this stigmatization, this focus on morales is is toxic uh and it's really aggravating the the conflict. I think that the uh vision on the part of the POS administration and on the United States and of the far right and the operation uh southern shield that that very uh corrosive international alliance through Trump is that this was going to somehow uh scare the protesters into retreating. And what it's done is it's infuriating them. You know, we have this is a group of people that's protesting because they don't have anything to eat tomorrow or the year after that. And people in La Pass are complaining that they don't have anything to eat. And everyone needs to be able to have a sustainable source of life. And that is not being addressed here as it's not being addressed in so many other places.

[00:06:56]>> Well, we we have only about a minute left, but I wanted to ask you about the Trump administration and the US interest in Bolivia. What does the US want from Bolivia?

[00:07:05]>> Well, the US on very different, you know, many levels was very unhappy with the expulsion of the US ambassador, the expulsion of the DEA in 2008 and all and the end of all US funding in 2013. And their claim was that Bolivia would become a narco state, that things would fall apart. And what we saw is that actually things in Bolivia got better.

[00:07:28]It's the threat of a good example. And you know it's very clear and you can when you speak to US diplomats they highlight that there's a strong desire for revenge on the part of the DEA on the part of the Trump administration which criminalizes protests in the United States and elsewhere. And there's an there's an obsessive focus on punishing the left instead of engaging with them or governing responsibly.

[00:07:57]>> We're going to leave it there. We're going to do an interview in Spanish. Um, and you can check it out at democracynow.org. Katherine Lever, director of Andian Information Network at Coachabomba Bolivia. And a very happy birthday to Angie Karen. That does it for our show.

[00:08:14]I'm headed to Tucson, Arizona today uh and Saturday to the Loft Cinema. will be doing a fundraiser for KXCI in Tucson as the screening of Steal the Story, Please about Democracy Now uh begins in Tucson.

[00:08:31]Then headed to Phoenix on Saturday night. You can check our website at democracynow.org. On Sunday, I'll be here in New York doing a Q&A after the screening at the IFC of Steal the Story, Please. Next weekend in Tampa and in Miami. And the following weekend, we'll be going through Vermont from Mont Peelar to Burlington to Brattleboro and beyond. Then to Sheffield, England and to the Belfast Film Festival. You can check our website at democracynow.org for all details and steal the story.org where it is screening in your area. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.

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