The transport sector began a twenty-four-hour strike in La Paz on Wednesday to protest Bolivia’s President Luis Arce’s handling of the country’s fuel shortage.
On the city’s main avenues, 19 blockages were reported, police commander Gunther Agudo told Red Uno television channel.
In the center of La Paz only a few private vehicles and taxis are circulating, AFP noted.
The strike was called by the main local transport union, Chuquiago Marka. Santos Escalante, one of the leaders of the organization, reported the arrest of two bus drivers.
“There is no fuel. We can no longer work”testified Juan Mamani, a 53-year-old bus driver at a blockade in southern La Paz.
“Some slept in line all night” to be able to access a gas station, he lamented, saying he had been waiting for eight hours to be able to fill the tank of his vehicle.
Vehicles queue to refuel during a 24-hour transport sector strike due to a fuel shortage in La Paz, October 23, 2024. / AIZAR RALDES / AFP
For 10 days, Bolivians have been facing the consequences of the blocking of the country’s main roads by supporters of former President Evo Morales, fearing his possible arrest in a case of alleged rape of a minor.
As a particular consequence of these blockages, hundreds of tanker trucks loaded with fuel have been immobilized, and service stations are struggling to restock.
Since the start of the movement by Mr. Morales’s supporters on October 14, the blocking points have increased from four to 21, most of them in the state of Cochabamba, the former president’s political stronghold.
The latter considers himself the victim of a “judicial persecution” orchestrated by the government of its former ally and now rival for the candidacy of the ruling party for the 2025 presidential election.
The first indigenous person to have ruled Bolivia (2006-2019) is the target of an investigation for “rape, smuggling and trafficking in human beings” due to a relationship he allegedly had with a 15-year-old girl, with whom he had a daughter in 2016.
Bolivia has been struggling with a fuel shortage for a year. The Andean country has had to reduce its imports due to the drop in its revenues from the sale of gas, its main source of foreign currency until 2020.
