Model Change: “Bolivia Needs to Work” | Cambio de modelo: “Bolivia necesita trabajar”

By Ernesto Estremadoiro Flores, El Deber:

DEMANDS

Multisectoral Protest Demands Model Change: “Bolivia Needs to Work”

Presidente de la CAO

The president of the CAO led the multisectoral march / Photo: Yolanda Mamani

Farmers, transport workers, informal vendors, and industrialists marched to reject the crisis and demand a new national pact that prioritizes production, employment, and the elimination of state corruption.

In a fiery speech that echoed among thousands of demonstrators, Klaus Frerking, president of the Eastern Agricultural Chamber (CAO) and leader of the Multisectoral Committee, launched harsh criticism against the national government, accusing it of bankrupting the country’s economy and upholding a model he deems exhausted and destructive for both production and employment.

The Multisectoral Committee, led by Klaus Frerking, is mobilizing in rejection of the current economic model and is demanding urgent government measures to halt the crisis: legal certainty, freedom to do business, and an end to state corruption.

“Today Bolivia wakes up,” proclaimed Frerking, amid ovations. “Power is beginning to tremble, because the people who work, who sell, who produce, and who transport have risen.”

The demonstration brought together representatives from the informal sector, agriculture, transportation, industry, and self-employed workers, all united under a common demand: an urgent change in the country’s economic direction.

During the event, the leader denounced a “disguised inflation,” a shortage of dollars and fuel, and the collapse of basic household goods due to what he called “a failed model” that, in his view, has destroyed national industry and turned the State into a “political spoils system.”

“We are not here just to protest, we bring proposals,” Frerking stated. Among the Committee’s demands are a new productive economic model, legal security, freedom to do business, and the elimination of the “corrupt apparatus that is eating away at the Bolivian state.”

One of the most applauded moments of the speech was his defense of small and medium-sized producers: “We are all Bolivians here. There are no big or small ones. We are a family and we get up at four in the morning to move the country forward,” he said, referring to his own experience as a dairy producer.

The Committee also delivered a letter to the government, signed as a “national pact for production, employment, and the future,” in which they demand immediate answers and a shift in current economic policies.

The protest ended with a direct call to the political establishment: “Let the Palace tremble! Let the corrupt hear! Bolivia doesn’t need more speeches. Bolivia needs to work,” Frerking concluded.

So far, the government has not issued an official response to the Multisectoral Committee’s statement. However, analysts warn that this kind of mobilization could mark a turning point in the country’s political and economic landscape.

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