Bolivia clears anti-government roadblocks after emergency decree, as patrol plane crash kills 6
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Anti-government barricades that isolated Bolivia’s capital La Paz and other major cities were still being cleared Sunday, the day after President Rodrigo Paz one declared state of emergency this was later approved overwhelmingly by parliament.
Also on Sunday, six people, including Bolivian Air Force officers, died when a light aircraft on air patrol over a blockaded highway crashed. The plane was monitoring parts of the highway connecting La Paz and the city of Cochabamba.
The Bolivian Air Force said an investigation board had been activated to determine the causes of the incident.
Although road closures have been suspended in most of the country, they continue in parts of the Cochabamba region, led by coca growers unions allied with former President Evo Morales (2006-2019). The government accuses Morales of encouraging protests in an attempt to destabilize the administration, according to presidential spokesman José Luis Gálvez.
Morales has been entrenched in his coca-growing stronghold in the Chapare region since 2024 and refused to appear before the courts. The government accuses Morales of inciting and financing the demonstrations to ensure impunity for the judicial investigation into allegations of abuse of a minor while he was president.
Security forces, who have been cleaning the highways since Saturday, did not enter Chapare, where road closures continued on Sunday. According to the government and police, coca growers’ unions maintain control of the region, where criminal groups linked to drug trafficking also operate.
But one of the largest rural unions behind the road blockades that choked La Paz on Saturday called for a pause in fighting and ordered protesters to stand down until next week to assess the situation following the declaration of a state of emergency.
Hundreds of trucks were stranded on highways during the clashes. Truck drivers were able to return home on Saturday. Business groups estimate losses at more than $2 billion while cities are facing fuel and food shortages, further complicating the country’s fragile economic recovery as it faces its worst economic crisis in four decades.
The government said on Saturday that the state of emergency would last 90 days but could be lifted earlier if “violence and threats against the public cease”.
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