Bolivia Moves Toward State of Emergency After 35 Days of Protests, Blockades and Nine Dead

Bolivia's political and humanitarian crisis took a major step toward an unprecedented threshold on Wednesday, June 3, when President Rodrigo Paz sent a new bill to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly (ALP) to formally regulate states of emergency — a move that signals the government may be preparing to deploy the military and police under extraordinary constitutional powers to break a month-long siege of the country's road network. With 103 active road blockades across seven departments, nine people dead, and La Paz under a near-total logistical siege, the crisis has reached a turning point from which there may be no easy exit.

How Bolivia Got Here: 35 Days of Blockades

The protests began in early May 2026, initially driven by economic grievances — the COB demanded a 20% wage increase and opposed the closure of loss-making state enterprises, while coca growers, rural teachers, Indigenous groups, and miners joined with their own sectoral demands. Though President Paz quickly annulled the land mortgage law that sparked the earliest mobilizations, the movement radicalized and converged on a single political demand: his resignation. Five weeks of protests and 28 days of blockades have generated economic losses exceeding $1.6 billion, according to private sector projections. In Cochabamba alone, the accumulated economic damage from blockades in 2026 has already exceeded the total losses recorded for all of 2025.

The Human Cost: Nine Dead, Hospitals Running Out of Oxygen

At least nine people have died as a direct result of the blockades, according to reporting compiled from Bolivia's Ombudsman's office and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). Of the nine deaths, six were caused by a failure to receive timely medical attention due to road cuts — ambulances blocked from reaching patients. One of the most recent victims was a 24-year-old cancer patient from Oruro who could not be transferred to La Paz for radiotherapy in time. Another was a heavy transport driver who fell ill after spending 32 days stranded on a blocked highway. One additional death occurred from a gunshot wound during a police unblocking operation. On June 2, the department of La Paz declared a 90-day sanitary and humanitarian emergency as hospitals began prioritizing only emergency surgeries due to critical shortages of medical oxygen. At the same time, due to the closures of main roads and the obstruction of cargo, many citizens have found themselves relying on government subsidized provisions of poultry, beef and other goods.

103 Blockade Points Across Seven Departments

According to Bolivia's Road Administration (ABC), 103 active blockade points are currently registered across seven departments, preventing the passage of food, fuel, medicine, and ambulances. Cochabamba has emerged as the new epicenter of the blockades with 32 cut routes, overtaking La Paz which has 19, followed by Potosí with 16, Oruro with 11, Chuquisaca with nine, and Santa Cruz with three. In the municipality of Pocona, Cochabamba, more than 100,000 chickens died after farms were unable to reach slaughterhouses due to blockades. In La Paz and El Alto, residents face kilometer-long lines for fuel as transport operators have staged their own secondary blockades to protest critical fuel shortages. Only Beni, Pando, and Tarija have remained largely unaffected by road closures.

Dialogue Rejected: COB and Túpac Katari Refuse to Negotiate

Despite repeated calls for dialogue by the Paz government, the Túpac Katari Federation categorically rejected any negotiation table, issuing an ultimatum for Paz to resign and warning that "sooner or later he will leave through social convulsion." The COB similarly hardened its stance: on Day 26 of the blockades, both the COB and the Túpac Katari Federation declined to attend government-convened dialogue sessions, with COB leader Jaime Solares saying simply: "The struggle continues." On June 2, a multisectoral cabildo convened by the COB formally approved resolutions demanding an immediate end to repression and the outright resignation of President Paz. Vice President Edmand Lara acknowledged the impasse but maintained that the president would exhaust every channel of dialogue before any other option.

What a State of Emergency Would Mean

President Paz framed his June 3 bill to the Assembly as "humanitarian action," stating: "Everything that our National Police, Armed Forces, and the Government will do will be humanitarian action to change this situation." The bill seeks to give constitutional and legal clarity to the armed forces before any deployment. Under Article 137 of Bolivia's Constitution, a state of emergency is declared by the president via Supreme Decree and must be reviewed by the Legislative Assembly within 72 hours. Measures that can be applied include restrictions on freedom of movement, curfews, bans on certain gatherings, increased military and police presence, and interventions to guarantee essential services. Critically, with the repeal of the Eva Copa Law (Law 1341) last week, the 60-day cap on the duration of a state of emergency has been eliminated, along with the obligation to notify the OAS and UN within 24 hours. The Constitution does prohibit the suspension of fundamental rights — including the right to life, due process, and judicial guarantees — and bars the declaration of a second state of emergency within one year of the first concluding, unless the legislature grants prior authorization.

A Cabinet in Crisis

The internal pressures on the Paz government have also intensified. On June 3, Defense Minister Marcelo Salinas and Education Minister Beatriz García resigned — the third and fourth cabinet departures since the crisis began, following the earlier resignation of Labor Minister Edgar Morales on May 21. Paz swore in a new Defense Minister, Ernesto Justiniano, at the same ceremony where he announced the state of emergency bill. The resignations compound the already significant internal fracture represented by Vice President Lara, who has publicly declared himself in opposition to the administration he nominally serves.