The Marx International

A powerful workers' and people's revolution has cornered the government of Rodrigo Paz Pereira, with thousands of miners marching toward the seat of government, paralyzing and blocking access to the capital. The use of explosives during street demonstrations, including dynamite blasts, is shaking the center of La Paz and El Alto, leading to violent clashes with security forces and fierce urban battles against the police, who are attempting to disperse the marches with tear gas, resulting in numerous injuries and arrests.

Workers are demanding a 20% wage increase and have been setting up pickets for several days, blocking access routes to La Paz. However, their demands have evolved from a wage increase to the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz. Meanwhile, farmers have been blocking access to La Paz for nine days, along with public transportation and truckers who have begun staging strikes and blockades in various departments. Teachers and healthcare workers are also carrying out national strikes and mobilizations demanding wage increases and responses to their demands. The government's refusal to accept the COB's (Bolivian Workers' Center) unified demands has led its bureaucratic leadership to raise the prospect of an indefinite national strike, which could bring down the government of Rodrigo Paz Pereira and the Christian Democratic Party, which took office on November 8, 2015, just six months ago.

A capitalist and pro-imperialist government

The recent victory of Rodrigo Paz's government marked a change because it ended two decades of administrations by the capitalist government "Movement for Socialism" (MAS) and now elevated to president the former deputy of the department of Tarija, president of its Municipal Council, and member of one of the emblematic families of Bolivian bourgeois politics since his great-uncle is the celebrated Víctor Paz Estenssoro, one of the most influential figures of the 20th century in Bolivia, founder of the MNR and four times president of the country.

In December 2025, Rodrigo Paz issued Supreme Decree 5503 , "Decree of Necessity and Urgency for Economic, Financial and Social Stabilization ." This was the central economic measure, with more than 120 articles, presented as a "rescue plan" in the face of the severe crisis of capitalist Bolivia. The decree determined the elimination of the state subsidy to hydrocarbons, gasoline and diesel, to "adjust prices ," which resulted in a dramatic increase in gasoline prices, which in turn increased the prices of all the basic food basket.

Knowing that the measures could provoke social unrest, the capitalist government of Bolivia temporarily reinforced social welfare programs for vulnerable sectors such as pregnant women, students, and the elderly—a system of subsidies for the poor intended to contain discontent. Meanwhile, the Christian Democratic capitalist government's plan aimed to attract foreign and imperialist capital by reducing bureaucratic hurdles to capital inflows and lowering import tariffs to 0%. However, the unrest was exacerbated by the scandal of adulterated or substandard gasoline, denounced by various transportation sectors for causing mechanical damage to thousands of vehicles.

In January 2026, the workers' movement and poor peasants began to take control of the streets, and the leadership of the COB (Bolivian Workers' Center) began to be overtaken by the masses, who chanted "Bolivia is not for sale!" The Indigenous communities of Beni and Pando rejected Law 1720, the "land redistribution law ," which fueled peasant blockades and threatened to bring down the government and derail the plans to sell off the nation. But behind the backs of the rank and file, the COB bureaucracy signed a treasonous pact with the government, seeking to prevent a mass uprising, but this was met with widespread condemnation from the working-class and peasant base.

The people began to overwhelm the COB (Bolivian Workers' Center), forcing the Paz government to negotiate with the various mobilized sectors. It seems that simply calming the people is no longer enough. This was clearly demonstrated by the recent decision of the reactionary Senate to "repeal" Law 1720, a move that failed to defuse the conflict. On the contrary, Indigenous, peasant, and grassroots organizations denounce it as a deceitful repeal designed to preserve the power of the Bolivian ruling classes.

But despite the government's attempts to buy time, the conflict escalated to over 70 roadblocks on strategic routes across the country, prompting the government to intensify its repressive response, while rumors of a possible declaration of a state of siege grew. Despite this, daily demonstrations continue, paralyzing downtown La Paz and encircling Plaza Murillo. Despite the security forces' attempts to clear the blocked roads, far from quelling the protests, the repression has only deepened the radicalization of certain sectors.

Political revolution and dual power in Bolivia

The Bolivian revolution is part of the third global revolutionary wave sweeping through Turkey, Serbia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Morocco, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, France, the United States, the Ukrainian national revolutionary war, Syria, Rojava, and the Third Palestinian National Liberation Intifada, which is part of the Second Arab Spring. One of the most important features of the current process is that it expresses the global process of political revolution and a growing dual power manifested in a broad and widespread assembly-based state, with thousands of workers and popular sectors making decisions through debate in unions, communities, expanded assemblies, and town hall meetings.

The global process of political revolution is the process by which the masses break with the old leaderships that have guided them for decades. In Bolivia, this process is manifested in the crisis of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), Evo Morales's party, which is currently experiencing the most critical moment in its history. The MAS is suffering an internal implosion and an unprecedented electoral collapse that ended nearly two decades of political hegemony in Bolivia. The MAS's electoral collapse in the August 2025 general elections led it to go from being a hegemonic force to becoming a marginal party.

To put this in perspective, in the last presidential election, which the MAS won in 2020 with Luis Arce as its candidate , it swept the first round with 3,394,000 valid votes. However, in the 2025 elections, with Eduardo del Castillo as its candidate , the MAS plummeted to 218,000 votes, just shy of the legal threshold for losing its legal status. Evo Morales is rejected and repudiated by mass sectors and activists, which led to a rift with the faction headed by Luis Arce. This upheaval impacted the political and social organizations that were under the leadership and influence of the MAS.

The collapse of the MAS party is the product of the workers' and people's revolution that ended its government in 2019. The leadership of the Bolivian Workers' Central (COB) has undergone profound and highly conflictive changes. Juan Carlos Huarachi, the COB's historic leader, was arrested and imprisoned in the Chonchocoro maximum-security prison in November 2025, under investigation for alleged illicit enrichment and corruption offenses linked to the Ministry of Environment and Water. The current executive secretary of the COB is Mario Argollo, who represents another sector of the union bureaucracy; however, his administration is not without legal problems: the Prosecutor's Office recently accepted a complaint against him for alleged pension-related offenses.

The Bolivian Workers' Central (COB), the CSUTCB, and the Tupaj Katari Federation established unity commitments under pressure from their rank and file, leading to agreements between neighborhood councils (FEJUVEs), the Red Ponchos, and various community and peasant organizations. Although the Paz government accuses the COB of acting in coordination with Evo Morales, the truth is that Argollo's leadership does not represent true independence from bourgeois parties like the MAS, but rather operates under the logic of union survival and grassroots pressure. The pressure of the revolutionary tide has pushed the new leadership to break the bonds of total submission, radicalizing its actions in the streets alongside miners and peasants.

Even with this enormous crisis and a reformist and bureaucratic leadership, the COB and mass organizations like the CSUTCB constitute a dual power that confronts the power of the bourgeoisie, the government of Rodrigo Paz Pereira, the bourgeois democratic regime, and all state institutions such as the Armed Forces, the Church, the security services, etc. This allows for the implementation of Marxist and revolutionary politics, enabling the proposal of a workers' and people's solution for Bolivia.

For a workers' and people's solution for Bolivia

We Marxists stand for a workers' and people's government, the overthrow of the bourgeois government of Rodrigo Paz Pereira and his party, the Christian Democrats, and its replacement by a government of the COB (Bolivian Workers' Center), the CSUTCB (Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia), and social organizations that will repeal all anti-worker legislation enacted by the Paz government and implement an economic plan that breaks all ties with imperialist institutions and serves the interests of millions of Bolivian workers. But it is fundamental that the workers' assemblies, the miners' union assemblies, and popular assemblies like those in El Alto remain active, because the COB and the CSUTCB have a treacherous, reformist leadership whose trust the people cannot possibly betray. The workers' and people's assemblies that are currently leading the insurrection must hold permanent elections for delegates and leaders to immediately remove those treacherous leaders. From Marx International we call for support and solidarity with the revolution in Bolivia, as part of the struggle for socialism in Bolivia and the world.