LatinNews Daily - 31 July 2024

*Protests over fuel shortages have resumed in Bolivia, with the local media reporting that highways have been blocked in the departments of La Paz, Santa Cruz, Oruro, Chuquisaca, and Cochabamba. The protests, which are being led by transport workers, had previously caused intermittent disruption in June but were suspended following the 26 June military insurrection. The president of Bolivia’s state hydrocarbon company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), Armin Dorgathen, yesterday said that the protests were politically motivated and are aimed at worsening the fuel shortages in order to destabilise President Luis Arce’s government. YPFB released a statement yesterday saying that its San Pedro fuel depot in Oruro had been blockaded as part of the protests, which it said “forms part of a planned sabotage by certain political actors who are aiming to undermine the logistics of fuel sales in this part of the country”. Government officials have previously blamed the protests on former president Evo Morales (2006-2019), who is locked in a power struggle with Arce over the 2025 presidential candidacy for the ruling left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).