Bolivia: agreement between the government and the main trade union center after six weeks of crisis

Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz reached an agreement on Friday with the country's main trade union center after more than six weeks of protests demanding his resignation, even if certain sectors continue their mobilization.

At the beginning of May, the Bolivian Workers' Center (COB) began a protest movement to protest against the lack of government responses to the economic crisis the country is going through, the most serious in forty years.

The movement led to shortages of food, medicine and fuel in several cities across the country, including La Paz, its administrative capital, and the neighboring city of El Alto.

“From now on, pressure measures are lifted at the national level,” COB leader Mario Argollo announced to the press after signing the agreement “for the pacification and recovery of the country.”

Rodrigo Paz, for his part, defended his negotiation strategy rather than the use of force. "Dialogue is always an option, the first option. Force is only intended for those who choose violence," he said. “Dialogue is stronger than force itself,” he insisted.

Peasants, indigenous populations, as well as factory and mine workers in particular have gradually joined the protest movement, rejecting the reform proposals of the center-right president. His coming to power in November put an end to twenty years of socialist governments.

The protesters also criticize the lack of solutions to emerge from the worst economic crisis the country has experienced in four decades.

- "Betrayal" -

Not all of the mobilized sectors signed up to this agreement. Peasant groups, as well as coca farmers from Chapare, stronghold of former president Evo Morales (2006-2019), in the center of the country, are continuing their mobilization.

“We have decided to toughen up the roadblocks,” the leader of one of the country's main peasant unions, Antonio Mallku, told the Unitel television channel.

“The indigenous brothers felt betrayed” by Mario Argollo and the COB, he added.

The number of roadblocks, which had exceeded a hundred a week ago, has been reduced by half in recent days and the government hopes that it will continue to decrease.

Under the terms of the agreement, the government notably committed not to privatize public companies, a major demand of the unions.

Working groups bringing together ministers and union officials must also be set up to examine several demands of the movement, in particular the fate of people arrested during clashes with the police.

According to the People's Defender, more than a hundred people have been arrested since the start of the demonstrations.

Mario Argollo assured that the agreement left