Bolivia: army and police unblock the roads after the declaration of a state of exception: News – Orange

The police and the army began on Saturday to calmly lift the roadblocks which have paralyzed Bolivia for more than six weeks, a few hours after the entry into force of the state of exception decreed by President Rodrigo Paz.

This regime, lasting 90 days, authorizes the army to support the police and prohibits roadblocks set up by a vast coalition of unions, indigenous groups and coca farmers opposed to the government.

It comes after the signing on Friday evening of an agreement with the country’s main trade union center, which announced the lifting of pressure measures. Other organizations, however, announced the continuation of the movement.

Shortly after the signing, Mr. Paz announced that he had declared a state of exception “after having exhausted all avenues of dialogue, concluded agreements with those whose demands were legitimate and identified those who used violence to try to destabilize Bolivia”.

At the beginning of May, the Bolivian Workers’ Center (COB) launched the protest movement against the economic crisis, the most serious in more than 40 years in the country.

Peasants and factory and mine workers gradually joined him, rejecting the reforms of the center-right president who came to power in November, after 20 years of socialist governments.

– “Ghost” dams –

In El Alto, near La Paz (west), a convoy of police vehicles, joined by army armored vehicles, was clearing the roads using construction equipment.

Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano spoke of an operation to clean “ghost dams”, made up of mounds of earth and stones. “There was no type of resistance,” he said.

As the police passed, some residents applauded, AFP noted. Carla Butron, a 39-year-old trader, said she felt “a lot of happiness, a lot of peace”, explaining that she had not been able to work since the blockages began.

Stranded for more than 50 days, truck driver Erlans Richard Segovia, 49, said he hoped to finally be able to leave. “We were abandoned on the road, we had to wait. Now we see that traffic is starting to normalize,” he said.

But other residents were angry. “I want him to resign once and for all, for Rodrigo (Paz) to go away. We are not going to stay silent (…), we are going to take to the streets,” said Eugenia Flores, a 40-year-old Aymara woman, tears in her eyes as she watched the police clear the road.

The army and police were also deployed in Cochabamba (center), AFP noted.

Roadblocks have led to shortages of food, medicine and fuel, particularly in La Paz, the seat of government. Their number fell to 34 on Saturday evening, after having exceeded a hundred at the height of the crisis.

However, not all the sectors mobilized adhered to the agreement signed with the COB, in particular groups of farmers and coca farmers from Chapare, the stronghold of former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) in the center of the country.

“The indigenous brothers felt betrayed” by the COB, the leader of one of the main peasant unions, Antonio Mallku, told the Unitel channel.

– Evo Morales in the viewfinder –

President Paz warned that those continuing the blockades or resorting to violence would face “the full force of the law.” He justified the state of exception by denouncing an “attempted coup d’état led by narcoterrorism”.

The government accuses Evo Morales, targeted by an arrest warrant in an alleged case of trafficking of minors – an accusation he rejects – of having encouraged the protest.

The indigenous leader and former coca farmer has taken refuge in Chapare for two years, protected by his supporters.

Asked about a possible intervention by the police in Chapare, Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo declared: “If we have to enter, we will enter.”