The president of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, announced this Saturday the establishment of a 90-day state of exception throughout the national territory, an extraordinary decision that seeks "not to continue being hostages" of the serious crisis generated by the blockades and protests that began 50 days ago and have paralyzed a large part of the country's activity.
Paz, in a message to the nation, justified the measure as a necessary step to restore "freedom" to the citizens in the face of "those who use political conflict to block roads and cause harm," in allusion to peasant organizations that have distanced themselves from the agreement sealed hours earlier between the Executive and the Bolivian Workers' Central (the COB and the 'cobistas'), the country's main union.
With this decree, the Police and Armed Forces are empowered to, in the words of the president himself, "execute the necessary actions to reestablish free transit, recover the roads, and guarantee the security of the population." Surrounded by his cabinet, Paz stressed that, after "exhausting all avenues of dialogue," he had no other alternative but to resort to this tool, limited, he underlined, to the elimination of blockades, and assured the population that their daily routine would not be altered.
Likewise, he addressed those sectors that remain mobilized directly: "And to those who are still blocking, I say clearly, you still have time to voluntarily desist; if you have legitimate demands, the doors of dialogue will remain open as they have been since the first day," concluded the head of state.
The announcement of the state of exception comes just hours after the Government reached an agreement with the COB to end the mobilizations and pressure measures promoted by the union throughout the country, which opened the door to a national pacification process.
However, even if the 'cobistas' were "lifting the pressure measures nationwide from this moment on," the Executive considers this gesture insufficient as long as an understanding is not reached with the peasant organizations, close to former president Evo Morales, who maintain the road blockades and continue to demand the resignation of President Paz.