On Saturday, Bolivian president Rodrigo Paz declared a state of emergency throughout the country, authorizing the deployment of police and the Armed Forces to crack down on protests. The move follows more than 50 days of roadblocks and demonstrations that have challenged a government that has been in power for just seven months, yet has implemented anti-worker austerity and privatization measures.

Just days earlier, the leadership of the COB, Bolivia’s largest trade union confederation, sat down to negotiate an agreement with the government as a way out of the crisis. However, various peasant and Indigenous groups, as well as organizations that have continued to mobilize, questioned those negotiations and have stayed in the streets.

For weeks, the government had sought to wear the protests down through arrests, criminalization, and partial negotiations with union leaders. Despite signing a law last month allowing the use of the Armed Forces, Paz had avoided declaring a state of emergency. But the persistence of the protests, and the strategic weight of sectors such as the miners, revealed the limits of that policy.

The miners’ entry into the conflict brought to the forefront the historic role played by these workers in Bolivia. The mobilizations led by this sector, together with peasants, teachers, and others, were one of the main factors that prevented the government from quickly stabilizing the situation.

In the face of this offensive, we must reject all criminalization and repression against those fighting for their demands. No to repression against protesters and organized communities! Down with the state of emergency!

The way out of the crisis cannot come from militarization or top-down deals, but from the independent organization of workers, peasants, and the poor to impose a solution favorable to the masses.

Originally published in Spanish on June 20 in La Izquierda Diario.

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