Bolivian miners clash with police in antigovernment protests amid economic crisis

Demonstrators led by mining groups and rural unions clashed with law enforcement in Bolivia on Thursday as tensions over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades intensified.

Small explosions were heard amid the protest in La Paz, attributed to miners setting off sticks of dynamite, and some protesters reportedly attempted to breach the presidential palace.

The unrest follows weeks of road blockades as miners, farmers, teachers and rural workers express frustration over Bolivia’s ongoing economic turmoil.

Bolivia was once a major exporter of natural gas, but its reserves have shriveled in recent years and production has plummeted, transforming the country from a fuel exporter into a net importer reliant on oil and natural gas from abroad.

The collapse of the natural gas industry, coupled with dwindling foreign currency reserves, has resulted in soaring inflation, supply shortages and higher prices.

Bolivians have endured long lines for fuel, and hospitals report shortages of basic supplies such as oxygen and medication.

Centre-right leader Rodrigo Paz was elected in October last year partly on a promise to address the economic tailspin.

His victory marked a political sea change in Bolivia, which for much of the past two decades — except for a brief period in 2019 — has been governed by the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

The decline of MAS has been attributed in part to public outrage over the economy.

But on Thursday, Paz likewise faced calls from protesters for his resignation, just as his MAS predecessor, Luis Arce, did.

Earlier in the day, a group of 20 miners were invited to the presidential palace to meet with Paz and discuss their demands, according to the Reuters news agency.

Ahead of the meeting, Economy Minister Jose Gabriel Espinoza said his government was “open to dialogue.”

Among the issues reportedly discussed were fuel subsidies, welfare benefits and changes to an agrarian reform measure, Law 1720, which was repealed on Wednesday after outcry.

Still, officials have refused demands that Paz step down. “The president is not going to resign,” Mauricio Zamora, the minister of public works, services and housing, said earlier this month.

Some of Paz’s allies have blamed the unrest on former President Evo Morales, a former trade union leader who continues to draw popular support in Bolivia’s rural areas.

Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, previously supported protests against Paz’s predecessor Arce after splitting from MAS.

He is also the subject of an arrest warrant: Morales has been accused of statutory rape and was held in contempt of court for failing to show up to a hearing last week.

A prolific social media user, Morales posted multiple times on Thursday about the protests, accusing the government of using him as a scapegoat and echoing calls for officials to address shortages of food, fuel and other basic supplies.

“They believe that the thousands of Bolivians currently protesting — in the streets and on the roads — are merely obeying a single individual,” Morales wrote in one post.

“The outraged are driven by their social conscience and their fury against a government that, from day one, betrayed its constituents and the nation.”