By Deisy Ortiz, El Deber:

PHOTO: APG

President Paz defended the removal of fuel subsidies. After talks with transport workers, miners, and neighborhood associations, the Government reached agreements that halted protests. Santa Cruz sets adjustments to interprovincial fares.

After hours of negotiations, the Government managed to stop the strike announced by the Bolivian Confederation of Drivers, adding to other agreements reached over the weekend. “We want to tell all transport workers in all their modalities—urban, interprovincial, interdepartmental, and international cargo and passenger transport—that today we had a strong debate over Decree 5503 and there will be no strike,” emphasized sector leader Lucio Gómez, stating that President Rodrigo Paz’s team of collaborators will work in technical working groups to address the sector’s demands.

The leaders met in La Paz with Government representatives, including the Ministers of Public Works, Mauricio Zamora, and Economy, José Gabriel Espinoza.
Before this agreement, President Rodrigo Paz engaged in dialogue with citizens.

“We are changing the way we act in our economy: there will no longer be subsidies, we are going to speak the truth—these are the real prices. We will have to change many things, but rather than lying to ourselves and letting a few become millionaires, I prefer that this burden be shared by everyone,” the President of the State said last night during a dialogue with citizens, in which he reaffirmed the measures adopted in Supreme Decree 5503 and explained the scope of the regulation.

Over the weekend, the President and his ministers carried out an intense agenda of meetings with various sectors. They succeeded in sealing agreements with different groups, which suspended their pressure measures.

Heavy transport, miners, neighborhood associations, producers, and interprovincial transport were among the sectors that ruled out pressure measures after the dialogue.

“The decree has been understood, the truth has been understood. (They tell me: ‘don’t remove the subsidy,’ but with what money? Ten million dollars a day are needed, and there isn’t any, because we were left with a bankrupt country),” he said.

He assured that a gradual adjustment was not considered because there are no resources. “That decision had to be taken; it was the healthiest option. Now we have to put things in order and readjust so there aren’t people raising prices two, three, four times,” he said, referring to price speculation.

Other agreements

The Minister of Productive Development, Rural Development, and Water, Óscar Mario Justiniano, highlighted the agreements reached with heavy transport, miners, producers, and neighborhood associations to ensure proper implementation of the measures established in the regulation.

Last night he met with the leadership of the 21 de Mayo Union to seek to lift the urban transport strike. He expects that today the cost study can be analyzed and a fare set in line with needs.

Likewise, after a meeting between the Vice Minister of Social Defense and Controlled Substances, Ernesto Justiniano, and the Secretary of Economic Development of the Governor’s Office, Pablo Sauto, with leaders of federated transport and interprovincial transport, it was determined that fares on intermunicipal and interprovincial routes will rise by 30%, on a provisional basis, until January 31, 2026.

That same day, an agreement was also sealed with cargo transport operators from Cochabamba, who decided to lift the pressure measures planned for this week.

During the event, the Minister of Economy said that dialogue is part of the Government’s policy to resolve structural problems that, he stated, were not addressed for more than 20 years. He indicated that the working groups will make it possible to address, in a technical manner, the demands of cooperative transport and to move forward with medium- and long-term solutions.

For their part, leaders of the Federation of Cargo Transport Cooperatives of Cochabamba confirmed that the announced blockades and strikes are called off. They assured that the sector will not take de facto measures while the working groups are underway and that the priority is not to harm the country or worsen the crisis caused by fuel shortages.

On Saturday, the Government reached an agreement with the Santa Cruz Transport Chamber, which decided to support Decree 5503. Subsequently, after meeting with the National Confederation of Neighborhood Associations (Conaljuve) and the La Paz Fedjuve, the installation of technical working groups was agreed.

In parallel, the Government also secured the support of gold-mining cooperatives, which assured that they will not mobilize against the measures adopted by the Executive. They pointed out that they already pay a price of Bs 8.78 per liter of fuel, considering that they use ULS diesel in their activities, intended mainly for medium and large consumers.