LA PAZ — Bolivia’s political crisis reached a new threshold this week as upheaval continues in the nation’s administrative capital. By a more than two-thirds majority, the Chamber of Deputies eliminated a rule that restricted President Rodrigo Paz’s leeway to invoke emergency measures, clearing the way for him to deploy the army and curb some civil liberties including freedom of movement and assembly. The law had already been rushed through the Senate. President Paz enacted the law on Wednesday, restoring the executive branch’s authority to deploy the military in the streets.
As of Wednesday evening, Paz was still emphasizing dialogue. But he left no doubt about what comes next if the blockades do not end.
“The country needs order, and is reaching a breaking point,” the 58-year-old leader said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue while not ruling out using “constitutional instruments” to end the blockade — an allusion to declaring a state of emergency.
“Anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the Constitution,” he added, assuring the police and military that they had the public’s support.
What Has Happened Since Our Last Report
When Sociedad Media first reported on Bolivia’s crisis on May 17, miners were marching to La Paz in plastic sandals. When we updated the story on May 21, three people had died and $50 million per day was draining from the economy. The situation has deteriorated significantly since then.
By May 21, four people had been killed and 90 had been arrested in connection with the protests. Three died after supplies failed to reach a hospital blockaded by protesters, and one person was killed in clashes with police.
On May 19, Evo Morales led a 190-kilometer march into La Paz, escalating pressure on the capital. His physical presence at the head of a column marching into the besieged city was the most direct signal yet that he is not simply amplifying the protests from a distance — he is leading them.
On May 23, police forces and the military were dispatched to create humanitarian corridors for convoys to enter the city. These convoys were attacked by protesters, who threw stones and dynamite at them. While overseeing an attempt to clear blockades in Copata, Public Works Minister Mauricio Zamora was ambushed by protesters and forced to flee. He was later located and rescued.
By May 24, the blockades had spread to the nearby city of El Alto — a city of nearly one million people that sits at the top of the ridge above La Paz and controls the main access routes into the capital. El Alto’s addition to the blockade system tightens the siege on La Paz significantly.
Paz’s government has prioritized reopening the country’s main highways, which have remained blocked for four consecutive weeks by mining unions. The attempt to create humanitarian corridors on May 23 was the most direct state action yet — and it failed. Convoys were attacked. The minister was ambushed. The blockades held.
The Congressional Vote & Its Critics
The overturned regulation outlawing states of emergency dates back to social unrest in 2019 which killed 36 people and led to the resignation of then-socialist leader Evo Morales. The fact that Congress chose this week to eliminate that regulation — with a two-thirds supermajority — is a measure of how seriously legislators are taking the threat to Paz’s government.
Critics of the move were immediate. Opposition lawmaker Sonia Sinani said it will actually make things worse and “pour gasoline on the flames” of the street protests. “This law is like a strait jacket,” said another opposition lawmaker, Alejandro Reyes.
The 2019 regulation that Congress eliminated was itself a response to state violence — a law passed specifically to prevent the kind of militarized crackdown that killed 36 people when Morales was forced from power. Eliminating it does not guarantee that a military deployment will be proportionate, targeted, or effective.
What it guarantees is that President Paz now has the legal authority to make that decision unilaterally if he concludes that dialogue has been exhausted.
Paz also announced a 50% salary reduction for himself and his Cabinet ministers, lowering his monthly salary to 12,489 bolivianos, or about $1,800 — a gesture directed at the protesters’ economic grievances, designed to demonstrate that the government’s austerity program applies to those at the top as well as those at the bottom.
Morales in the Open
Morales — in hiding from charges of trafficking a teenage girl with whom he allegedly fathered a child — told AFP in an interview Wednesday that Bolivians are furious because Paz oversees “a government that is utterly submissive” to Washington.
The interview is notable for two reasons. First, Morales gave it — a man who is technically a fugitive from criminal charges is conducting press interviews, leading 190-kilometer marches, and calling for a sitting president’s resignation. Second, the framing: “utterly submissive to Washington” is the message Morales is using to mobilize the indigenous and labor base that has historically been his most reliable constituency. It is an effective message in a country where U.S.-backed economic reforms have a documented history of producing crises.
The United States government has expressed support for Paz and condemned the protests and road blockades, describing them as an attempted coup driven by an alliance between radical political groups and organized crime. U.S. officials including Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Washington would not allow the overthrow of Bolivia’s legitimate authorities.
Washington’s public characterization of the protests as a coup attempt gives Morales exactly the rhetorical material he needs: a U.S.-backed government deploying U.S.-backed language to justify military action against indigenous workers marching for economic dignity.
Whether that framing is accurate — and Sociedad Media has documented the political instrumentalization of genuine economic grievances by a Morales movement with specific political objectives — does not determine whether it is effective.
In Bolivia’s political culture, it is.
What Comes Next
Paz is now in possession of emergency powers he has not yet used. The blockades are in their fourth week. La Paz is still under siege. The army has been authorized. The minister who tried to open humanitarian corridors was ambushed and rescued. And Evo Morales — the man driving the crisis — is giving press interviews from hiding.
Bolivia has become one of South America’s main centers of political instability in 2026. The congressional vote this week has not resolved that instability — it has set the stage for its next, potentially more dangerous chapter. A military deployment that goes wrong, in a country with the specific political memory of 2019, could produce consequences that make the current crisis look manageable in retrospect.
Paz said Wednesday the country was at a breaking point. He was not speaking figuratively.
Sociedad Media has covered Bolivia’s crisis since May 17. Tips and feedback welcome at info@sociedadmedia.com
