By Milton Condori, Vision 360:

Analysts Say It Is Delegitimized and Discredited

It led protests for 50 days without achieving its main demand. Experts consulted say the organization emerges with a damaged image. Meanwhile, its executive leader, Mario Argollo, has not yet commented.

Mario Argollo, COB leader, during a protest march. Photo: APG

After 50 days of mobilization, the Bolivian Workers’ Central (COB) signed an agreement with the government on Friday night containing eight points aimed at restoring peace in the country. However, according to analysts Paul Cocaand Rodolfo Eróstegui, the labor organization is left with a delegitimized and discredited image and institution, both among the sectors that make it up and among its critics.

“First, the COB was already discredited among its detractors for carrying out these pointless mobilizations—let’s be honest, they made no sense whatsoever. Second, among the people who supported it, the labor federation is now also discredited because it signed an agreement and called for the lifting of the state of emergency. And at this point it has not made any statement regarding the state of emergency,” Coca told Visión 360.

The COB, together with peasant groups from La Paz and supporters of Evo Morales, carried out a campaign of road blockades that for 50 days caused severe shortages of food, medicines, supplies, and fuel, in addition to deaths.

Coca argued that, having lost credibility with both supporters and opponents, the COB will struggle to rebuild its image, which he said has already been in decline for several administrations. “And the COB’s strategy has backfired badly. It lacked political flexibility, and in future mobilizations against the government—which are certain to come—it will no longer receive support from sectors that view the agreement with the government as a betrayal.”

The labor federation had called on its affiliated sectors to begin phased blockades following the May 1 assembly, demanding a 20% wage increase for workers along with other demands. However, that demand was eventually sidelined. COB affiliates, social organizations, the La Paz Departmental Federation of Peasant Workers “Tupac Katari,” and groups aligned with Evo Morales rallied around a single objective: the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz, who has been in office for seven months.

The blockades lasted more than 50 days across five departments. In May, the department of La Paz was the region most affected by the pressure tactics, while in early June Cochabamba became the area with the highest number of blockade points.

For analyst Rodolfo Eróstegui, both the COB and its executive secretary, Mario Argollo, have ended up “very poorly regarded by society in general,” and the organization “has become completely delegitimized during these 50 days.”

“It entered this conflict already lacking legitimacy. For years the COB had been viewed negatively, accused of being aligned with the MAS, of receiving favors and privileges, and of benefiting from hotels, vehicles, and office facilities. All of that had already severely worn down its credibility,” the analyst said.

Eróstegui believes Argollo bears much of the responsibility for this loss of prestige because he showed “complete naivety by entering this kind of conflict without knowing how to get out of it,” apparently believing he would emerge victorious.

“He wanted to come out triumphant, but since he failed to do so, he could not claim victory. Naturally, he is now heavily defeated and unable to recover politically, which is why he accepted the agreement,” he said.

On that point, Coca added that Argollo is one of the main figures responsible for the COB’s deterioration because he has “politically buried it” before a society that “wants nothing to do with it anymore.”

As of now, the top COB leader has not made any public statement on the matter.