Roadblocks blocking access to Bolivia’s main cities eased on Monday, but shortages of fuel, food and other basic supplies remain after more than a month of protests against center-right President Rodrigo Paz.
Protesters called for an end to U.S.-backed economic reforms aimed at overthrowing 20 years of socialist government and demanded his resignation.
Bolivia’s road authority said the number of roadblocks blocking the delivery of essential goods to cities such as La Paz had dropped from more than 100 in the past two weeks to 50 on Monday.
In La Paz, people lined up for three blocks outside a state-run supermarket after news broke that chicken was on sale.
But in private stores in Bolivia’s main city and neighboring El Alto, relief from traffic chaos appeared to have had no effect as meat and vegetables continued to cost twice as much as usual.
Medicines are in short supply in hospitals and people are sleeping in their cars for days while waiting to get to gas stations.
Paola Herrera, a 50-year-old employee of a trucking company, spent five hours waiting in line to buy a chicken, one for each person.
“Everyone is suffering and the government is not taking any decisions. It wants protesters to get tired or bored and lift the lockdown,” she told AFP.
The demonstrators, mostly blue-collar workers, farmers, miners, truck drivers and teachers, rejected Paz’s ideas for ending the poor South American country’s worst economic crisis in four decades.
Paz took office just seven months after his arrival ended 20 years of socialist rule in Bolivia.
The main union behind the protests has rejected the government’s calls for dialogue, and Paz said he would not rule out deploying soldiers and declaring a state of emergency to restrict rights such as freedom of assembly and movement.
Paz claimed last week that protests calling for his resignation were started by “narco-terrorists” he linked to former socialist icon Evo Morales.
Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, is hiding out in the coca-growing stronghold of Chapare to escape charges of trafficking in minors, which he denies.
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
