Bolivia’s government faced a dramatic escalation Monday as a cabinet minister’s convoy came under attack while overseeing the clearance of highway barricades erected by anti-government demonstrators — the most violent episode yet in three weeks of protests that have paralyzed the country.
Interior Minister Carlos Zubieta was traveling with a military escort near the town of Sacaba, Cochabamba Department, when protesters surrounded the convoy and set upon vehicles with improvised explosives, according to two security officials briefed on the incident who spoke on condition of anonymity. Zubieta was unharmed but three soldiers in his detail were injured, one seriously.
The attack underscored how a wave of protests that began in early May — triggered by the government’s decision to cut fuel subsidies and allow gasoline prices to double overnight — has hardened into a direct challenge to President Luis Ardile’s authority. Ardile, who took office in August 2025, has watched his approval rating plummet from 54 percent to 29 percent in six months, according to a poll published last week by Universidad Mayor de San Andrés.
Blockades have cut off La Paz from the country’s agricultural heartland. Food prices in the capital have spiked 40 percent since the protests began. Fuel shortages have grounded public transport across Cochabamba and Oruro departments. At least 14 people have died in protest-related violence since May 1, according to the local human rights ombudsman.
On Monday, soldiers using armored vehicles pushed through the Sacaba barricades — one of the largest blocking the Cochabamba-La Paz highway — only to encounter a second, larger crowd waiting at a bend in the road. The ambushed convoy was caught between the re-formed blockade ahead and a crowd that had circled behind it. Soldiers fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd; no deaths were reported at the scene, but local hospitals received 11 casualties.
“This is no longer a protest — it is an insurrection,” said Miriam Choque, a political analyst in La Paz. “The blockades are not just about fuel prices. They are about whether this government has the capacity to govern.”
The protests are being driven by a broad coalition: truckers who can no longer operate profitably, mining cooperatives facing the end of state subsidies, teachers demanding back pay, and a growing movement of university students angry at the gutting of scholarship programs. A national strike called by the Bolivian Workers’ Confederation last Tuesday drew an estimated 800,000 people across the country.
Ardile’s government has held emergency sessions but has not declared a state of emergency, a move his cabinet reportedly fears would trigger international condemnation and risk the International Monetary Fund suspending a $1.3 billion credit line that Bolivia is counting on to prevent sovereign default. The IMF has not publicly commented on the crisis.
Regional powers are watching closely. Brazil’s foreign ministry issued a statement calling for “restraint and dialogue,” while Argentina’s ambassador to Bolivia met with government officials Monday to assess the situation. The Biden administration has not issued a formal statement, but three people familiar with internal discussions said State Department officials were monitoring the protests as a potential trigger for a larger humanitarian crisis.
The blockades have also complicated the government’s ability to service foreign debt. Finance Minister Renee Barragán told reporters Monday that debt payments scheduled for June would be made “in full and on time,” but declined to explain how given the disruptions to commerce and tax collection caused by the road closures.
For now, the standoff shows no sign of resolution. Protest organizers say they will not lift the blockades until the government reverses the fuel subsidy cuts and restores a price ceiling on gasoline. Ardile, whose party lacks a majority in Congress, has so far refused, calling the cuts “necessary and permanent.”
On Tuesday morning, truckers’ groups and student organizations announced a new round of blockades on roads leading to the La Paz airport, potentially grounding flights in and out of the capital for the first time in the three-week crisis. The government said it was deploying additional army units to secure the airport approach.
— Diego Vargas, Media Hook