The president of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, has signed this Monday a new law backed by Parliament that reinforces the Executive's powers to decree states of exception and authorizes the deployment of the Armed Forces amid a wave of protests and serious disturbances that have shaken the country for almost 40 days.
The regulation stipulates that each state of exception must be approved by decree, detailing its territorial scope, duration, the extraordinary measures that may be applied, and the institutions responsible for implementing them.
The legal text, which received the support of the Legislative Assembly the previous day and had already passed through the Senate, also sets a maximum duration of 90 days, extendable only if authorized by the Chamber itself.
In practical terms, the law expands President Rodrigo Paz's room for maneuver to declare a state of exception and facilitate the use of the Armed Forces in containing the mobilizations, which for more than a month have kept the capital region, La Paz, under siege to demand the departure of the head of state.
"I promulgate this norm because it is within the logic of defending the great majorities against those who want to attack us and disrupt this democratic process, this constitutional process," President Paz expressed after signing the legislation.
Paz also called to "progress" and boost the growth of the Bolivian economy, but placing security as a priority. "If someone enters your house, if someone rapes your daughter, if someone robs you, you ask the State to protect you and the State must act to protect Bolivians," he argued.
"There cannot be first-class and second-class Bolivians. There cannot be Bolivians who are above the law, above our democracy and our Constitution. There cannot be Bolivians who, because they have resources from narco-terrorism, can change decisions of different organizations or block decisions of different organizations in our country," he added.
The president also warned that "security is in danger when narco-terrorism" or "the priorities of certain sectors that are not favorable" to democracy, the Constitution, and the "free development of the homeland," are placed above the interests of Bolivian society as a whole.
"I am surprised that there are authorities or some spokespersons of some political organizations that, in the face of the violence of narcoterrorist forces, with firearms, attacking civil society, attacking the State represented in our National Police, are more concerned that there has been confrontation between civilians," he questioned, demanding support for the security forces.
This Monday marks 39 days since the start of the large demonstrations in La Paz, which have progressively spread to other areas of the country, with clashes with the Police and the lifting of nearly a hundred blockades, most of them in La Paz and Cochabamba, the political stronghold of former president Evo Morales.
To the indefinite strike launched by the Bolivian Workers' Confederation (COB), the country's main union, road blockades have been added, carried out, in part, by peasant and rural organizations.
Initially, the protests focused on demanding improvements in living and working conditions in different sectors, in a context of a deep social and economic crisis that Bolivia has been experiencing for years. However, as the weeks have passed, the demonstrators have gone on to demand Paz's resignation as an inalienable condition.