Business groups, transporters and other sectors plan mobilizations against higher diesel prices for large consumers.
Bolivian business groups, transporters, cooperative miners and agricultural producers are preparing protests against a government decree that sets diesel at 18 bolivianos per liter for industrial customers, large consumers and direct customers.
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The groups, organized under the Multisector Committee, plan to take to the streets once the state of exception currently in force expires, according to César Gonzáles, executive secretary of the National Confederation of Trade Guilds of Bolivia.
The committee brings together about 20 sectors, including trade guilds, agricultural producers, cooperative miners and heavy transport operators. Organizations in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, La Paz, Oruro and El Alto are already coordinating the planned mobilizations.
La CSUTCB -Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia- anunció una marcha este miércoles en el Chapare contra la subida del diésel y los intentos de captura de Evo Morales. #Bolivia #teleSUR #24Ago pic.twitter.com/htEppJdolp
— teleSUR TV (@teleSURtv) August 24, 2026
Text Reads: The CSUTCB -Confederation of the Single Trade Union of Bolivian Peasant Workers- announced a march this Wednesday in the Chapare against the diesel price hike and the attempts to capture Evo Morales.
In Santa Cruz, organizers expect protests in the four cardinal directions, while organizations in the other departments will coordinate their own actions.
Gonzáles said Supreme Decree 5676 would deepen the country’s economic crisis by increasing diesel costs and affecting the entire production chain. He called for measures to reduce fuel prices, including facilitating imports, ensuring the operation of refineries in Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, and arranging crude oil imports.
He also urged President Rodrigo Paz to work with experts and representatives who understand the country’s economic and productive conditions.
“This supreme decree must be repealed. The government must make the right and appropriate decisions. We ask President Paz to work with people who know the territory, who are part of these sectors and who understand the country’s economic reality,” Gonzáles said in an interview with Red Uno.
Gonzáles said the government would have until the state of exception ends to respond to the groups’ demands. If no response is forthcoming, he said, the mobilizations will begin once the period expires.
Security deployment in Santa Cruz
The government has meanwhile deployed police and military personnel to Santa Cruz following warnings from campesino groups that they could block roads in opposition to the removal of the diesel subsidy for large consumers.
The Defense Ministry said police and military contingents were sent to Yapacaní, a locality 131 kilometers from Santa Cruz. Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano said the deployment was intended as a preventive measure to support the Bolivian police.
“Following the public call for a blockade in Yapacaní, a preventive deployment of the Armed Forces was ordered last night to assist the Bolivian police,” Justiniano said.
Santa Cruz is Bolivia’s largest region and the country’s main economic driver.
The planned protests center on Supreme Decree 5676 and the diesel price established for large consumers, with the groups demanding that the measure be repealed.
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