unions

These protests blocking the highways are largely being orchestated by the major trade union. That part of the article isn't wrong.

The short part is: Military tried to coup in 2024. Opposition to the military coup called on unions to strike. They did.

The coup was an internal split of the ruling coalition, so the current president, from the Christian centrist party, managed to win in 2025. He did not include the trade unions or indigenous people of Bolivia in his government and is turning everything over pretty categorically to American/Epstein class interests. (Wealth taxes cut, restored Israel relations/cut off Cuban relations, etc.)

So the disenfranchised unions are striking, which is being written off as little more than insurrection from a defeated party that had a split and an attempted coup in 2024.

You really have to believe and trust the current American government to really critique the protests quite frankly.

Contrary to the claims of ZombiFrancis, whose ignorant campist bootlicking extends to apologia for Russian imperialism and denial of the Uyghur Genocide, the situation is complex.

Effectively, the current president was elected and entered into office six months ago based explicitly on the centrist promise to end the economic chaos and mismanagement of the previous governments, which had cratered the Bolivian economy. The issue is twofold - first, that the current president is, and largely made no secret of, a centrist neolib. That much is true. Second, that the state of the Bolivian economy was predicated on a complex system of clientism cultivated by a previous strongman president Evo Morales. Essentially, any disruption of the core problems of the economy then disrupt this client network, and there people who have obtained any amount of power and privilege are desperate to hold onto it.

The current administration has made numerous and notable steps in a dipshit neoliberal direction - including the abolition of several taxes to 'encourage investment'. As well as that, the current president's government did not include any indigenous or trade unionists in the cabinet, whereas under the previous government both indigenous and trade unionists were significant partners in governance.

However, one of the two major sparks in the current blockade of Bolivian cities was the end of fuel subsidies - a massive expense that the Bolivian government literally could not afford, but was maintained by previous governments to keep the loyalty of the previous government's rural support base. The issue of fuel subsidies has only become more ruinous since the dipshit US-Iranian War, which has driven up fuel prices further. The other major spark was a reform of land law allowing holders of farms to convert them from a 'protected' to an 'unprotected' status upon a request from the owner, something opposed by the previous government which relied upon the non-transferability of individually-owned plots of land in order to reinforce traditional indigenous social cohesion, regardless of the wishes of the individual who nominally owned it.

In response to this, significant protests flared up in the countryside, supported by the former president Evo Morales, a rapist and pedophile (ironic that ZombiFrancis attempts to connect the current government to the 'Epstein class' in light of this) who attempted an autocoup to stay in power after losing an election in 2019. His successor, Luis Arce, was from the same party and same general political leanings, but did not support Morales returning to power, which earned him Morales' everlasting enmity, which resulted in a split of Morales and Arces' party and the utter obliteration of its electoral fortunes in 2025. Morales is currently charged with several counts of child molestation, but has refused to appear in court, protected by his remaining client system of supporters. (Oh, notably, Morales doesn't deny the accusation - he just says that "There is no crime without a victim" - ie, that the children wanted his pedophilia, so it was okay)

The land reform law was rescinded as a gesture of good faith, but that was only the spark, not the real cause, and failed to mollify the protesters. Protesters then began to blockade roads to the capital and other major cities - a technique also used by protesters in the country when they attempted to protect the strongman Evo Morales from consequences when he attempted to steal the 2019 presidential election. Evo Morales himself has shown up, rallying his remaining client system to push protests with the sole purpose of having the current president resign, presumably in the hope that he can worm his way back into power.

At present, three people have died from the protest blockade preventing vital supplies from reaching the cities, and one protester has died in clashes with police. The current administration has refused demands from suffering urban residents to use greater police force on the protesters to open the roads for medicine and food, despite the protesters refusing even this limited 'humanitarian corridor' proposal, out of fear of being seen as the aggressor, when a major platform of the current president was the restoration of democratic norms after years of abuse. The administration has announced a willingness to negotiate, but the major leaders of the protests have maintained a hardline position demanding mass rollbacks of policy changes and the resignation of the president, and refused negotiation.

tl;dr; disphit neoliberal government is elected to fix previous dipshits, does dipshit things in the other direction, announces willingness to compromise when the dipshit policies upset people. Rural client system of the previous party smells blood in the water and blockades major cities in the hope of getting their old power and privileges back after losing the previous election, including some of the few moves of the neolib government that were probably unavoidable. Previous strongman leader of the country who attempted to run for four (illegal) terms despite a plebiscite denying him the ability to change the constitution and allow him to do so is egging on the hardliners and his client systems as best as he can, probably in the hopes of returning to power and/or avoiding his current trial for pedophilia.

Bolivia had a leftwing government that got couped in 2019. An opposition politician declared herself president, and gave extraordinary powers to the army. Soldiers and police massacred people, particularly those from indigenous communities. Elections were finally held in 2020, and the leftwing party returned to power.

In the 2025 elections, Evo Morales, the leader of the leftwing coalition, was disqualified, and a centre-right candidate won. He started selling off public assets to foreign interests. Recently, with US support, he tried to arrest Morales, leading to protests.