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A rebellion is shaking Bolivia.

Since May 1, workers, peasants, and Indigenous people have been combatively protesting the right-wing government led by President Rodrigo Paz.

Since taking office in October 2025, Paz has implemented an anti-worker, pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist, austerity agenda, including cutting healthcare and education, doubling fuel prices, privatizing land, and opening the country up to foreign capital and mining interests, particularly Bolivia’s vast lithium reserves.

As a result, protesters from a variety of sectors — including farmers, students, Indigenous groups, educators, and more — have taken to the street demanding Paz step down, setting up huge roadblocks around major cities and fighting off government and police repression. The union bureaucracies, meanwhile — such as the COB, Bolivia’s largest trade union federation — have played a largely conciliatory role.

But the situation in Bolivia is not an isolated flare-up of class struggle. Rather, Paz’s rise cannot be separated from the limitations of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), the party that governed the country from 2005-2025, and of its leader, Evo Morales.

MAS and Morales were part of the early 2000s “Pink Tide” in Latin America, which saw the rise of similar center-left governments that ultimately betrayed the masses and paved the way for the right-wing to take power. This includes Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia, as well as Javier Milei in Argentina, Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, José Antonio Kast in Chile, and Nasry Asfura in Honduras.

Viewed through this lens, the uprising in Bolivia is part of a broader, continent-wide fight against the Far Right. This includes the struggle against U.S. imperialism: President Trump, after all, supports these reactionary figures, and has doubled down on imperialist domination of the Western Hemisphere as part of his National Security Strategy and “Donroe Doctrine.”

Bolivia demonstrates the power of the working class and oppressed to confront the Far Right on the continent, and this uprising can be an inspiration, including here in the United States, where we must keep organizing against U.S. imperialism.

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The post AllThatsLeftPod: Rebellion in Bolivia appeared first on Left Voice.

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