Social organizations intensify nationwide blockades as demonstrators demand Paz’s resignation.

On Wednesday, President Rodrigo Paz enacted Law 1732, which expands his powers to organize the repression of the massive demonstrations that Bolivians have been carrying out for the past month to demand his resignation.

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Previously approved by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the new law allows Paz to decree states of emergency without the limiting requirements established by the now-repealed Law 1341 on “States of Emergency,” which had been designed to prevent abuses in the use of force and to guarantee accountability in emergency situations.

Among those restrictions was the condition that the Armed Forces could only intervene in the repression of protests when police capacity was clearly overwhelmed. Law 1341 also established that neither the Armed Forces nor the Police would be exempt from criminal responsibility or enjoy impunity for their actions.

The repealed Law 1341 originated from a report by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), which conducted an investigation into the massacres committed in Senkata, Sacaba, Huayllani and Pedregal after the U.S.-backed coup d’etat against President Evo Morales in 2019.

Massive Protests Persist and Are Spreading

Since early May, the Bolivian Workers’ Center (COB), the El Alto Federation of Neighborhood Councils, miners, farmers, the Indigenous citizens known as the “Red Ponchos,” factory workers, and teachers have been demanding Paz’s resignation.

Over the last week, social protest has intensified through more than 150 road blockades deployed across six regions, seeking to reject the Paz administration’s privatization plan and neoliberal policies affecting most vulnerable sectors.

The Bolivian Workers’ Center opened the possibility of dialogue with the right-wing administration if authorities released those detained and suspended the arrest warrant against COB Secretary Mario Argollo and other union leaders. On Wednesday, however, the government hardened its stance.

“The vote must be respected, and so must the Constitution. That’s just how it is. Those are the rules of the game. But if they do not want dialogue, the Constitutional rules are already there for that. I want to be very clear,” Paz said on Wednesday in a message with a threatening tone in which he assured that a state of emergency would be decreed if dialogue between his administration and the protesters does not succeed.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: teleSUR – COB – EFE

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