San Francisco Frontiers - Bolivia farmers return to streets over diesel price hikes

The demonstration is the latest to be held in defiance of the state of emergency declared by center-right President Rodrigo Paz in June following weeks of mass anti-government protests.

The mostly Indigenous demonstrators demanded that Paz rescind a decree doubling the price of diesel for consumers who buy in large quantities, including farmers, from $0.80 to $1.50 per liter.

The government hiked the price to curb fuel smuggling to other countries, which is aggravating shortages in Bolivia.

One of the protesters pulled a tractor with a rope, shouting: "No diesel, no diesel!"

Elena Aine, a 40-year-old farmer, said the price increases "greatly affect the rising cost of basic necessities for all."

The police did not seek to disperse the protesters, despite such gatherings being banned under the state of emergency.

On Wednesday, the government announced relief for small farmers, saying that they will be able to purchase up to 2,500 liters of fuel per month at the old price of $0.80 per liter.

But the concession failed to mollify the protesters.

Paz came to power last year in the midst of the worst economic crisis in the Andean nation in four decades, marked by acute shortages of fuel and dollars.

One of his first moves was to eliminate fuel subsidies implemented by the outgoing socialists which had eaten into Bolivia's currency reserves.

But the queues for fuel at gas stations still run to several kilometers in some places.

Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president who led the country from 2006 to 2019, is one of Paz's fiercest critics.

"This government doesn't have much of a future. Even less so Rodrigo Paz as a politician," Morales told the Red America television network on Friday.

K.Torres--SFF