Bolivian security forces clashed with anti-government demonstrators outside La Paz on May 16, deploying some 3,500 soldiers and police officers in a bid to clear road blockades that have severed supply lines to the capital for two weeks, as a deepening economic crisis and the shadow of former president Evo Morales fuel the unrest.

Officers fired tear gas against protesters who responded with rocks, clubs and crude projectiles, in confrontations that left at least 57 people in custody, according to the government's citizens rights ombudsman. The blockades caused at least three deaths by cutting off access to medical care, presidential spokesman José Luis Gálvez said, describing yesterday’s operation as an attempt to open a "humanitarian corridor" for food, oxygen and medical supplies. Gálvez said he was "more than satisfied" with the results, noting that several convoys had managed to pass through.

Bolivia is enduring its most severe economic crisis in four decades, rooted in the collapse of its once-thriving natural gas sector. Vast reserves discovered in the late 1990s transformed the landlocked Andean nation into a major regional energy exporter, but production has slumped since 2022 amid mismanagement and dwindling supplies, leaving the South American nation dependent on fuel imports. Foreign currency reserves have cratered, inflation has surged and long queues for petrol have become commonplace.

Centre-right President Rodrigo Paz took office in October, ending nearly two decades of socialist rule under the Movement for Socialism (MAS). He had campaigned on pledges to reverse an economic decline driven by widespread corruption and to rebuild relations with Washington and Western partners. But his abolition of longstanding fuel subsidies and drive to sell off state-owned companies has deepened discontent among a broad coalition of trade unions, Indigenous communities, teachers and mining co-operatives now blocking roads at more than two dozen points across the country. Prices of key food items have risen sharply since the blockades began.

Government figures close to Paz have repeatedly identified Morales, a hard-leftist who governed Bolivia from 2006 to 2019 and commands enduring loyalty among coca growers and rural communities centred on the Chapare region, as the driving force behind the demonstrations. Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo alleged that Morales-aligned networks in the Trópico de Cochabamba had bankrolled and co-ordinated the street campaign. Coca growers loyal to the former president seized the Chimoré airport in the Chapare on May 16; their former local leader Teófilo Sánchez declared that followers stood ready to defend Morales and that any move to detain him risked triggering a mass mobilisation.

Morales rejected the accusations on social media, arguing that the protesters were motivated by genuine grievances rather than the instructions of any single individual. "The outraged are driven by their social conscience and their fury against a government that, from day one, betrayed its constituents and the nation," he wrote. Morales is currently the subject of an arrest warrant after failing to appear at a court hearing in April in connection with aggravated human trafficking charges, which he has dismissed as politically motivated persecution.

Bolivia's largest labour federation, the Bolivian Workers' Centre (COB), called on its membership to hold firm despite the crackdown, while the government announced separate agreements with a group of El Alto workers and urban schoolteachers who promised to stand down. An earlier deal with striking miners, who had demanded increased fuel and explosives supplies, was also reached on May 15. Demands from the broader protest movement include wage rises, economic stabilisation measures and Paz's resignation. The COB argues that Paz is pushing through the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, a move it warns could push up prices for electricity, drinking water and gas, and that a package of 10 economic reactivation laws favours transnational corporations at the expense of ordinary Bolivians.

Paz hardened his rhetoric on May 15, warning during a United Nations Development Programme event that those seeking to "destroy" Bolivia's democracy would face imprisonment. "Those who have tried to destroy this democracy since the past will go to jail, because the value of democracy is above any personal interest," he said.

Several regional governments — including Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras — issued a joint statement expressing solidarity with Paz's administration and warning against attempts to destabilise Bolivia's elected institutions through force. Argentine President Javier Milei, who dispatched a C-130 military aircraft carrying humanitarian supplies, denounced the protesters as anti-democratic. Paz thanked Milei on social media, calling the gesture "vital relief for our communities in times of great need."

Minister of Economy and Public Finance José Gabriel Espinoza said the government would avoid direct confrontation and prioritise dialogue to contain the crisis. "Bolivia needs agreements, stability, and joint work," he wrote on X.