Red ponchos and wiphalas at the heart of the peasant protest in Bolivia

In a square in Tilata, in the Bolivian Altiplano, hundreds of farmers dressed in red ponchos urge their leaders to toughen up the demonstrations that have shaken Bolivia for 40 days. A stone thrown towards the platform testifies to their impatience.

“Let him fucking resign!” launches the crowd in this locality in the province of Ingavi, at the gates of El Alto, historic bastion of social movements in the country, demanding the departure of center-right president Rodrigo Paz.

"We want him to leave. We don't want him to govern (...) We will not stop the blockades until this incapable government is gone," Lidia Callisaya, a 42-year-old peasant leader, explains to AFP.

In front of the roadblocks of stones, trunks and debris that line the region's roads, vehicles display a wiphala, the flag of the Andean peoples, like a pass.

“We are going to radicalize the blocking points. No more products are coming in or out! We are the ones who are making the city eat,” says a leader to applause.

At the origin of the majority of the dams, the peasants were joined in the protest by workers, miners, transporters and teachers.

All denounce what they consider to be the neoliberal turn of Rodrigo Paz and demand solutions to the worst economic crisis that the country has been going through in four decades.

In Tilata, a town located at an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters, discussions continue in the open air during the cabildo, the union assembly of Aymara peasants.

- Shoulder whip -

Around the square, dozens of men with cheeks swollen from the coca leaves they chew stand guard. With whips on their shoulders, they display papers on their hats bearing the words “Union Police”.

This cabildo is only one stage of a broader consultation process on the continuation of the movement. But a trend seems to be emerging: the refusal of any negotiations with President Paz.

In the middle of the crowd of farmers, Vicente Salazar, main leader of the powerful Tupac Katari peasant federation in the department of La Paz, displays his determination.

"The government is trying to exhaust us. There was a response, but it's just promises that people don't believe in," he explains to AFP. “The people stood up and demanded, in the form of an ultimatum, the resignation of the president,” he adds.

Although the number of blockade points has increased from around 100 to around 50 across the country over the past two weeks, shortages persist in cities.

In La Paz and El Alto, blockages continue to weigh on daily life. The prices of many food products have doubled, oxygen is scarce in hospitals and motorists sometimes spend several days in their vehicles in the hope of refueling.

Along the roads of