The blockades
I... struggle to say everything I want to say right now. I write in English, because English has greater reach than Spanish. I'm also not that fluent in english so now I have to think more before writing.
As of writing, there are 44 days of blockades in my country, Bolivia, most of them reclaiming the resignation of the current president, Rodrigo Paz. These 44 days of blockades don't happen in "oh, they're blocking the squares", "we'll block the streets". The highways connecting the cities are blocked - the logistic chain is broken.
We have people waiting on line for gas to arrive. Some for a week. I wish I could post photos right now but the shapes of the gas lines extend for kilometers, and turn through multiple squares.
I frequently feel like a tourist in my own country. I'm bolivian, and the Bolivia I experience is real for me. Yet I'm in a privileged position and the life in Bolivia that I feel is not that of the average Bolivian. I live a good life in a residential area, outside the urban city.
Bolivia is a very hurt society. Old wounds shape the societal landscape. The genie that used to be in the bottle has burst out and will not come back - every since 2019. Or maybe 2016. 2011?. Maybe since 2002/2003. Earlier.
Were would I even begin with 2019? The relevant parts. Evo Morales left the country with most of their current political party fleeing too. There was two days of misrule - ungovernment. And then Jeanine Añez was declared transition president with a priority to call elections as soon as possible where in 2020, Luis Arce won the elections (oh god, where to begin with Añez?). The important part now is the two days of ungovernment. Los días de desgobierno.
I was in my last years of school. When the manifestations started, school was suspended. This was not uncommon at the beginning, manifestations and blockades are very frequent and for me back then it just meant "oh, I won't have schools for two or three days". And I lost almost a month of classes - this was months before covid-19, so there was no infrastructure for schools yet to take classes online.
The manifestations where mostly urban, from the city, in the city. So transit was still possible, barely. As all manifestations here, they start pacific, last like this for some hours, then gas and stones are thrown and yada yada yada.
I've been in some of these manifestations. Been is not really the word. Passed by. Made numbers for some minutes, then left - there were very committed people in here, who've been there for weeks.
When Evo Morales left, I remember I got out to celebrate. There were many celebrating in my area. Which then quickly turned into fear as we heard of thefts happening in the outer areas of the city - like the place where I lived by. We (I've gone out with my parents) went quickly home.
At the night, I've barely slept. I heard first drunk people screaming on the street - cursing in a way only drunk people do. Then I've heard the trash container being trashed. Then more people running and saying things. I could've heard more, but I wasn't even allowed to see - my parents were very alert at the window, which we were told to not even move the curtain and appear asleep. More news, lot of robberies to business and some beatings. Expectancy.
Next day. Across the bridge where the city stopped being city, a massive manifestation carrying bolivian flags and whipalas was forming. Three squares away, fires and firecrackers were there. Atop a hill, on the opposite direction of the bridge and one square away, many more people were watching. Some of my neighbors went into my flat to not be alone. But even more neighbors went out to build barricades on the street. We put yurex (Duct tape, but nobody says cinta adhesiva here) on the windows, expecting them to break. A neighbor even suggested to boil water just in case we needed to throw it, but we didn't. We were all scared.
Someone screamed, many many people started running off the hill, into my square. We hid in a windowless room we have. We heard a ton of screaming outside. And our windows were broken. I even kept some rocks that landed in my room!
Outside, a battle was going on between my neighbors. Stones were being thrown into the heads of one another. I know of people that lost sight that day, and broke ribs. Many many more injuries that I didn't heard. The neighbors from across the bridge were gaining up streets and moving back the neighbors from before the bridge.
I've heard this a ton while in my flat. "¡Ahora si, guerra civil!". "Now is it, civil war!". (More literally it would be only "now, civil war" as "ahora si" means now. But the "si" from "ahora si" implies more than a simple "ahora" could ever be. When provoked and retaliating, an allowed expression would be "Ahora si" just as you decide to not take it anymore, which could be translated to the intent of "Now you've done it")
The police arrived at noon and started gassing my neighbors. I couldn't keep thinking of my neighbors. The police started gassing the people across the bridge, and sided with my neighbors. Wounds open.
I remember very well walking to the house of one of my parent's friend, and seeing really the cost of this conflict in my neighbors. I've seen people doing guard and armoring themselves. I remember of my neighbors two were captured and beaten up. I don't remember well if they were used as bargain but it wouldn't surprise me. It happened in other sides. This happened all around the parts the city stops being city.
In another part, they burnt the house of some politicians. In another, they burnt the puma kataris - busses owned by the city for public transportation. This hurt the most for me, I love the puma. Way way better than using trufis and minibus, and micro. And cheaper too. And cleaner. Way slower though.
More relevant, who is "they"?
In 2020, after a questionable at best response to covid, corruption cases and worse, elections were held and Luis Arce won - ex economy minister from Evo Morales. Ending the transition presidency of Añez. Añez was arrested, as was many people key in the manifestations leading up to Evo Morales's resignation, such as Fernando Camacho. Añez was kept in a state of justice juggling and didn't have a set sentence through all the duration of Arce's presidency. Not like she didn't deserve it, probably she deserves way worse than those years she spent being justice juggled. But it should be settled, not leaven up to luck if she ever had a proper trial.
Notably, one of the fears that people had about Arce was that he was going to just give the presidential power to Evo Morales, or to work as his puppet. Which didn't happen, not like it was thought of. Of course they'll have close relations given that they're both from the same political party, the MAS, but there was a ton of infighting.
Around this time, I started developing a political leaning - a real one. Its impossible to not account the personal lived experience in this process, yet it also counts the ideals and morals that one has. The development of consciousness of the politics around and the current personal and national situation one is in.
I can't say I settled, I can't never say I finally have a political opinion as I'm always learning and changing it. Yet I've learnt I tend to agree with the left more than with the right. Therefore, I must be more left wing than right wing. Right?
The left is fucking insane here. I'm not a MAS member. Never will be. I've seen how they use left discourse to decolonize, people's empowerment, subsidies, etc etc etc, and then screw over everyone and specially over the people that supports them. Most notable case are the manifestations for the Tipnis in 2011. The subsidies which are not sustainable, the blatant day to day corruption, the ghost projects, the screw over the queer community here, the intention of governing forever, and cynicism of not even bothering to hide it.
Evo Morales could have done his thing when he was elected, twice, then move on from presidency, and he may have been remembered as an ok president, maybe even a good once, considering the antecedents. A frequent criticism I've heard is that the MAS is not a real socialist party, but a neoliberal one. They didn't really came to alter the government, they came because its their turn now to be the boot.
I don't really agree with this perspective. I see where it comes from.
In 2020, when Arce won, I was trying to argue and defend my point on the internet. I tried to be sensible. The MAS has developed a state-capitalist regime, highly centralized that's very effective at wasting money in their core members. They didn't alter the relations of productions - the worker kept being oppressed, the party actively suppressed local indigenous and worker self-determination and instead made them highly depend on the state. They aren't 'better' for the planet, they're insanely aggressive on the extraction of raw materials and are very destructive of the environment - the extractivism which mirrors colonial patterns. And how in general they chose capital accumulation over its own left wing or indigenous rhetoric.
So, in general, I argued that the MAS win, was bad.
I was called a liberal. I was called a tankie. I've learnt, a ton, from semantics to facts. I've seen old wounds open. I've seen many "disfruten lo votado" and many more "the US will not touch this". Its so frustrating to see people in other countries defend MAS in the principles of identity politics.
However the average latin comment was also fucking insane. Blatant racism that completely justified the monsters they made of us. Disposition that would make Ayn Rand proud. ALL CAPS WRITING TO ASK "WHERE'S THE MONEY GOING TO COME FROM?". And a complete lack of trust on anything getting better through democracy and human means.
The principle number one for me is, the less suffering the better, no matter whom. How is that so hard???
I'm very bitter that I must share the anti MAS position with people like that. And that I must share the left position with USSR apologists.
I've come to find that I'm a surprisingly political person, I like to think that that's because politics in the south is hard mode and that politics still does you if you don't do politics. A comforting lie. The average voter is enough to kill everyone who tries to understand them.
In june 26, 2024, a large amount of military troops and vehicles surrounded the palace of government at arount 15/16 pm. I was in the market back then, doing the shopping of the week, when I saw this on a TV on someone's shop. "Holy shit, its happening".
Rice, salt, onions, potatoes, garlic, grains. The meat was gone in minutes. Rice, salt, onions, potatoes, garlic, grains. The ATMs quickly took long lines to get your withdrawal limit. Rice, salt, onions, potatoes, garlic. A panic clouded the environment. People started to come. I forgot frying oil and flour. Once I notice, gone. All around, I hear comments about Banzer and old wounds open. I think I heard a shopkeeper say "don't go out in the night, they kill people". I think about my grandparent, and how he was kidnapped by the military when my mom was a kid. About the long lines to get bread by family that my parents used to tell me they did mornings.
Turns out it was a whole bunch of nothing. General Zuñiga basically went to the palace of government, ram through the fences, and was told by Arce to fuck off.
Then promptly arrested.
He also quickly told the press that he was told by Arce to make a big show of coup to gain popularity.
This is not argued anymore, as most people have already reached a conclusion. Either failed coup, or failed self-coup. The failed self-coup because the idea of a self-coup is to gain extraordinary power and become dictator. Which didn't happen.
I personally believe self-coup. Its has the playbook of MAS all over it. Somehow this doesn't come as a surprise, its just how they work.
The scare faded away, we suddenly had a ton of rice. And potatoes. I didn't think about it too much after it happened. The world is very fragile.
Around that time, the MAS was having an internal war. Arcistas vs Evistas. Evo leaved the party, basically. For weeks, not a law could pass in the legislative power. The MAS had the majority, yet their division meant that they arrived at a standstill that lasted weeks.
In other countries, a standstill means reelection, or a reconfiguration of the senate/government to ensure this doesn't happen anymore.
This standstill meant only one thing. Blockades. Outside the city, in the highways and in the rural camp. Food doesn't arrive, so it goes up. Fuel doesn't arrive, so it goes up. Everything goes up. Aside, I remember here particularly there broke fights between these bands. Which didn't mean anything beyond this taking longer and thus things kept going up.
In 2025, Rodrigo Paz won the elections. For the first time in more than twenty years, Bolivia has a president that's not MAS. This meant the return of the right to the power. Rodrigo Paz is a lot center, a bit right. Most other favored candidates where mildly right to far right, the worst right. The MAS was not present in this election, as its acronym was banned from being elected.
Nobody voted for Rodrigo Paz. People voted either for the right - the most right they could get. Or voted for his vice president, Edmand Lara, an important figure that came to fame after denouncing corruption in the police. Lara is police, and very notably, tiktoker.
The PDC (Paz and Lara) were the only people to do campaign in rural area, as I understand. Thus, this gave them the win. They made promises, as any politician does, and meetings and all that. They didn't deliver, as all politicians do, and this is the base of the blockades of today.
From now on, the facts are blurry as they are fresh. But the base of it all is that they came from the rural camps to blockade La Paz, as it always happens, to demand the delivery of the promises made and if not done, the resignation of the current presidency.
What most people in the city heard, we want the current president to resign so that the MAS can come to power again.
Its not a surprising allegation, given all the context given, its just how they work.
I've started feeling depressed.
There is a history of the MAS using paid manifestations to force their way. Who pays for a manifestation? Each day a protester goes, is a day not worked. A day of lost revenue. How can the same people that can afford to leave their work for days, even weeks, be also the poorest population given the recent census? The days leading up to Evo's resignation, there was a manifestation that walked from the south of the country to La Paz. They were met with bullets. Frequently, when the government failed to deliver on a promise or didn't hear something, communities affected would block the highway part nearest to them in order to call the attention of authorities - they didn't move to La Paz. There is proof in past manifestations, that there were people funding them. Its also been found to happen in certain sectors in this one.
Which is a key part here, sectors. There's no single block of people. When this started a month and a bit more ago, medics, professors, merchants, teachers, miners, laborers and carriers went to the streets to demand for the resignation of Rodrigo Paz. Coordination.
The initial response was typical, dialogue.
And here it becomes a big game of who says who. At least for me. I can't keep up with the news. Not again. Not like this. The medics are no longer protesting, neither are the teachers. I know the government has tried a bit the dialogue at the beginning, then left in read. I know there has been leaders of unions kicked out for trying to dialogue - for traitors. And right now, that there's a 'humanitarian pause' where finally, trash trucks can move. (In reality, there are videos, bragging! of trucks full of people ready to keep protesting and leaving to the camp filled with tired protestors)
Old wounds open. After an alleged assassination attempt of Evo Morales (Hard to verify, very likely it tried to happen), there has been videos of people with firearms in the camp marching through a highway towards La Paz, repeating "Ahora si, guerra civil". As of writing, there has been threats of cutting off electricity and water to cities made by union leaders. Right now, electricity has actually been cut off from some places in La Paz, though its unclear now if this is caused by the protestors or not.
I don't actually believe that most of these people actually meant it. I know of someone who used to, that also wanted to dissolve Bolivia in two, east and west, to each their own indigenous identity. And also was very fervently anti cities. He died some years ago of natural causes as I remember. I don't know.
Old wounds open. Bolivia has an identity struggle. Most people remember the Andes Bolivia, but that's but a fraction of it, in reality. The title of Plurinational State of Bolivia is the most fitting, as multiple. The diversity here is outstanding and beautiful. The division here is deep and sharp. Playfully at times, the war between east and west is fun to indulge as casual banter between friends. Dead serious at others, actual cause of division and fight. Cities and rural. I've been called k'ara before - basically a white that steals their way into richness (I'm not white, neither a capitalist) and also seen living proof that Evo was right regarding his anti racism politics. I hate racism. Its the weapon used the most by the powerful to siege discord among equals. Yet. Old wounds open, and even older bad ideas blossom around me.
I've had thoughts. That Bolivia is beyond saving. I don't want to believe this. But the climate here has come so hostile and divided, its hard to find the human behind the blockades, when my neighbors, family and I are struggling too. And. This is not that kind systemic issue, there's no hyper inflation going on right now, lack of liquidity, systemic collapse of economical infrastructure or what not. All the problems right now could be worked, addressed by first stopping the blockades. I really, really don't like Rodrigo Paz, but he didn't even had the time to prove me right.
And he keeps doing nothing. As all politicians do. And Edmand Lara keeps tiktoking his way into his own third position from left and right.
I want to believe that maybe if just Rodrigo Paz resigns, all this will stop and a reelection will be called. It won't. The MAS would be called in, as always. Its just how they work.
There's always the football field. The actual football, not american football, futbal.
I was never that good at football in school, yet I liked playing it. I've gone to play football with some friends from school after what are years now. To my surprise, I'm both better and worse.
The meme of "girls friend group | boys friend group" is real for everyone I know of. The single mantle "latine" (btw, latine is better than latinx because latine is spanish-er than latinx) means that there's a huge variety of everyone you know off here. Before, I thought that the latin identity only meant the land we're born from, as the huge variety didn't made sense to me. But there is something in common, I don't know what it is or how but its there, a common thread, its so hard to unsee once you see it.
Some years ago, I was playing football with my friends and some taxi drivers came to play with us too, we won one, I think. I hope. There's always a match and a rematch for honor. They took some shirts of football teams and put their tennis and shorts, I was in jeans I think. They played hard, with strong kicks and ram through, but we had better technique as far as I remember. There were jokes I don't remember, but I remember the laughs. And grunts.
Some time ago, while I was searching someone to do a grade project with, I've come to talk with the owner of a private course academy. Excel, english, ISOs, maybe some python, the usual. The talk started with what can I do a system because its system engineering. It lead into a talk about climbing up from touching bottom, a "never again". I didn't talk to him again, I'm ashamed of that. I learnt a ton in that academy.
Some months ago, while I was waiting for my puma to go to college, I was talking with a woman from the rural area. Her spanish wasn't too polished, and my aymara is hugely underdeveloped, but its always possible to communicate. I don't know how to say it, but after a while, you come to understand exactly what someone meant without understanding the language. We talked about how things used to be, where I grew up, where she grew up, and how it changes. I don't even know how we started talking, but it just happens sometimes when getting near other people. She thought I was camba - from the east, and told me so indirectly by calling me opa.
There's always room to find the human when I'm next to someone. When did we arrive at this? I miss the idea of Bolivia I had before. I refused to see, even when things got really bad, because I still wanted the idea of hope that things can get better. I don't see it like this anymore. I'll always treasure the memory of you. I don't remember when it clicked, that I like this country. I like being here. Yet I've become more aware and bitter at the fact that I'm here.
These blockades are hugely more complex than I can ever hope to capture, or comprehend. Its not fair to call it all fault to MAS. Or to Rodrigo Paz. Or the protestors. I can't hope that this will have a good ending. Yet, I still do believe that its possible to lead a fulfilling live despite the struggle we face now. Even if I can't see it, I try to remember the human behind. In the end it truly comes down to being around other people and doing your best. I hope I can hold myself to it.