Bolivia protests second week; US warns of ‘coup d’état’

Protests that have blocked roads across Bolivia and turned the center of the capital, La Paz, into a battleground between demonstrators and police entered their second week.

The unrest marks the most turbulent period in center-right President Rodrigo Paz Pereira’s six months in office, which began after he ended nearly two decades of rule by the left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).

One of the former senator’s first actions was to restore relations with the United States, which now describes the uprisings as “an ongoing coup d’état” against Paz Pereira.

Alongside the domestic unrest, Bolivia’s president triggered a diplomatic crisis Wednesday by ordering the immediate expulsion of Colombia’s ambassador in La Paz, retaliating for remarks by Colombia’s left-wing President Gustavo Petro.

On Sunday, Petro reposted a video claiming Paz Pereira was a “puppet of the US” and commented that Bolivia was experiencing a “popular insurrection” that was “the response to geopolitical arrogance.”

Announcing the expulsion of Ambassador Elizabeth García, Bolivia’s foreign ministry said the decision was intended to “preserve the principles of sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs.” Moments later, Petro told a Colombian radio station that Bolivia was “sliding into extremism.”

The protests have caused four deaths so far: one demonstrator reportedly killed in clashes and three others reportedly because roadblocks prevented them from receiving proper medical treatment. Dozens have been injured, and more than 40 road blockades were in place across the country on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau claimed the protests were “an ongoing coup d’état.”

Speaking in Washington, Landau said: “Let us not make any mistake about that; it is a coup financed by this perverse alliance between politics and organised crime across the region.”

Bolivia is experiencing its worst economic crisis in four decades, with shortages of dollars and fuel and rising inflation that date back at least to the final years of previous President Luis Arce’s term under MAS.

Paz Pereira, the son of former President Jaime Paz Zamora (1989–1993), took office promising “economic shock therapy,” but conditions have not improved, and some of his measures have proven deeply unpopular.

One of his first decisions was to end a two-decade-long fuel subsidy, promising a free market would bring higher-quality fuel. Instead, shortages continued, and soon a “dirty fuel” crisis erupted after part of the supply was found adulterated. The president said he had been the victim of alleged “sabotage” by former officials supposedly linked to MAS.

The historic leader of MAS, former President Evo Morales, also looms over the current administration. The country’s first Indigenous president has been entrenched since late 2024 in the coca-growing region of Chapare, where hundreds of farmers prevent police or military from enforcing an arrest warrant against him for allegedly fathering a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2006.

Morales is being tried in another province on human-trafficking charges linked to alleged political favors granted to the girl’s parents. He failed to appear, and the judge issued a new arrest warrant to bring him before the court.

Presidential spokesperson José Luis Gálvez said Morales was fueling the unrest in order to “evade the trial.”

Morales denies this and said the uprisings were “against the implementation of the neoliberal model,” adding that “it is just and necessary for the thousands of victims of ‘dirty fuel’ to begin a civil action.”