Bolivia

Dec. 23 (UPI) — At least four law officers were injured Tuesday in La Paz during clashes between marchers from the Central Obrera Boliviana, the country’s largest labor federation, and police as protests intensified over the government’s decision to end fuel subsidies.

President Rodrigo Paz issued a decree Dec. 18 eliminating fuel subsidies that had been in place for nearly 20 years. He also declared an “economic, financial and social emergency” to justify the reform and paired the measure with a 20% increase in the minimum wage to cushion its impact.

As a result of the decision, gasoline and diesel stopped being sold at state-controlled prices of about 53 cents per liter and shifted to prices reflecting the real cost of imports, leading to increases of nearly 200% for consumers.

According to reports by the Bolivian newspaper El Deber, the incidents that left police officers injured occurred near Plaza Murillo, close to the government palace, when miners and transport workers attempted to approach areas secured by law offivers.

The Ministry of Government said the injured officers were attacked with stones and blunt objects while carrying out public order duties.

Police said a miner was detained for allegedly throwing fireworks and dynamite. Labor leaders, meanwhile, criticized using tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

Union leaders warned that protests will continue unless their main demand is met — the repeal of the decree that eliminated fuel subsidies.

Bolivia’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office said that after the fuel price changes, fares for interdepartmental, interprovincial and urban transportation rose by as much as nearly 200% in several regions, according to La Razón.

After inspections at transport terminals and hubs in La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, the ombudsman’s office documented widespread and unilateral fare hikes that in many cases doubled or even tripled prices, directly affecting the cost of living for Bolivian families.

El Deber reported that similar protests were recorded in Santa Cruz, including temporary road blockades and clashes with police, amid growing public anger over the impact of higher fuel prices on transportation and household expenses.

Authorities reiterated calls for dialogue and warned they will not tolerate violence, while unions said they will maintain mobilizations until the government reviews the measure.

EU delays Mercosur trade deal until January amid farmer protests and opposition from France and Italy.

The European Union has delayed a massive free-trade deal with South American countries amid protests by EU farmers and as last-minute opposition by France and Italy threatened to derail the agreement.

European Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho confirmed on Thursday that the signing of the trade pact between the EU and South American bloc Mercosur will be postponed until January, further delaying a deal that had taken some 25 years to negotiate.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was expected to travel to Brazil on Saturday to sign the deal, but needed the backing of a broad majority of EU members to do so.

The Associated Press news agency reported that an agreement to delay was reached between von der Leyen, European Council President Antonio Costa and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – who spoke at an EU summit on Thursday – on the condition that Italy would vote in favour of the agreement in January.

French President Emmanuel Macron had also pushed back against the deal as he arrived for Thursday’s summit in Brussels, calling for further concessions and more discussions in January.

Macron said he has been in discussions with Italian, Polish, Belgian, Austrian and Irish colleagues, among others, about delaying the signing.

“Farmers already face an enormous amount of challenges,″ the French leader said.

The trade pact with Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay would be the EU’s largest in terms of tariff cuts.

But critics of the deal, notably France and Italy, fear an influx of cheap commodities that could hurt European farmers, while Germany, Spain and Nordic countries say it will boost exports hit by United States tariffs and reduce reliance on China by securing access to key minerals.

Brazil’s President Lula says Italy’s PM Meloni asked for ‘patience’

The EU-Mercosur agreement would create the world’s biggest free-trade area and help the 27-nation European bloc to export more vehicles, machinery, wines and spirits to Latin America at a time of global trade tensions.

Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, said Germany, Spain and the Nordic countries were “all lobbying hard in favour of this deal”. But ranged against them were the French and Italian governments because of concerns in their powerful farming sectors.

“Their worry being that their products, such as poultry and beef, could be undercut by far cheaper imports from the Mercosur countries,” Kane said.

“So no signing in December. The suggestion being maybe there will be a signing in mid-January,” he added.

“But there must now be a question about what might happen between now and mid-January, given the powerful forces ranged against each other in this debate,” he added.

Mercosur nations were notified of the move, a European Commission spokeswoman said, and while initially reacting with a now-or-never ultimatum to its EU partners, Brazil opened the door on Thursday to delaying the deal’s signature to allow time to win over the holdouts.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Italy’s Meloni had asked him for “patience” and had indicated that Italy would eventually be ready for the agreement.

The decision to delay also came hours after farmers in tractors blocked roads and set off fireworks in Brussels to protest the deal, prompting police to respond with tear gas and water cannon.

Protesting farmers – some travelling to the Belgian capital from as far away as Spain and Poland – brought potatoes and eggs to throw and waged a furious back-and-forth with police while demonstrators burned tyres and a faux wooden coffin bearing the word “agriculture”.

The European Parliament evacuated some staff due to damage caused by protesters.

Dec. 17 (UPI) — The government of President Rodrigo Paz said it will push to revise Bolivia’s legal framework for coca leaf cultivation after official data showed that planted areas exceed authorized limits and continue to expand.

According to the 2024 Coca Crop Monitoring Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, presented in La Paz, Bolivia ended 2024 with about 34,000 hectares of coca crops, a 10% increase from the previous year.

That figure exceeds by 12,000 hectares the cap set by the 2017 General Law of Coca, which authorizes 22,000 hectares for legal cultivation.

Coca leaf is recognized in Bolivia’s Constitution for traditional, medicinal and cultural uses, but part of the production is diverted to cocaine manufacturing, the report said.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization decided to keep coca leaf on its list of controlled substances, citing the risk to public health posed by its easy conversion into cocaine.

Against that backdrop, the Office on Drugs and Crime urged the Paz administration to strengthen control strategies, particularly in protected areas, and to update data on domestic demand for licit consumption.

Vice Minister for Social Defense and Controlled Substances Ernesto Justiniano said the government plans to amend the law, but said new parameters will depend on a fresh study to determine how much coca is needed for traditional use in Bolivia, according to local newspaper El Deber.

“Bolivia has more coca than it needs for traditional uses. Crops have not stayed at 22,000 hectares. By 2024, they were at 34,000, and in the next report, we will probably be close to 40,000 hectares because very little was eradicated this year — barely 1,700 hectares,” Justiniano said.

He said he recalled a study released in 2013 estimated that 14,700 hectares were sufficient for legal consumption, but that the limit was raised to 22,000 hectares in 2017 — a decision the new government now questions as lacking “technical justification,” the outlet ERBOL reported.

At the same time, the government said the eradication of illegal coca crops will again become a central pillar of its anti-drug strategy, with a focus on what it calls surplus production feeding drug trafficking.

To prepare the new study on domestic demand for coca leaf, authorities said they will invite representatives from coca-growing groups, academic institutions and other sectors to ensure transparency of the data.

Officials expect that once the findings are released, negotiations will begin with coca growers from the Chapare, a coca-producing region in central Bolivia.

Justiniano said farmers there blocked eradication efforts this year, mainly in the tropical Cochabamba region, an area widely regarded as the political stronghold of former President Evo Morales.

Former leader denies charges over alleged diversion of funds meant for Indigenous development projects

A Bolivian judge has ordered former President Luis Arce to remain in detention for five months while prosecutors investigate allegations he embezzled millions of dollars from a fund meant for Indigenous communities.

Arce, who left office just a month ago, appeared before Judge Elmer Laura in a virtual hearing on Friday, two days after his arrest on the streets of La Paz.

The judge rejected appeals from Arce’s legal team for his release and ruled he must await trial in one of the capital’s largest prisons, citing the seriousness of charges that “directly affect state assets and resources allocated to vulnerable sectors”.

No trial date has been set.

The accusations centre on Arce’s time as economy minister under former President Evo Morales between 2006 and 2017, when authorities say he oversaw the diversion of approximately $700m from a state fund created to channel natural gas revenues into development projects for Indigenous peoples and peasant farmers.

Interior minister of the new right-wing government, Marco Antonio Oviedo, has described the 62-year-old former president as “the principal person responsible” for approving transfers of large sums into personal accounts of government officials for projects that were never completed.

Arce maintained his innocence during Friday’s hearing, saying he had no personal involvement in managing the fund and dismissing the case as politically motivated. “I’m a scapegoat,” he told the judge. “The accusations are politically motivated.”

His defence lawyers had requested his release on health grounds, noting his previous battle with kidney cancer.

However, Judge Laura denied the appeal and exceeded the prosecution’s request of three months’ detention by ordering five months in a state prison rather than a juvenile facility.

The case first emerged almost a decade ago in 2015 when the Indigenous fund was shut down amid corruption allegations, but investigations stalled during the years of Movement Toward Socialism governance.

The probe was revived after conservative President Rodrigo Paz took office last month, ending nearly two decades of left-wing rule in Bolivia.

Paz campaigned on promises to root out corruption at the highest levels as Bolivia grapples with its worst economic crisis in 40 years. His vice president, Edmand Lara, celebrated Arce’s arrest on social media, declaring that “everyone who has stolen from this country will return every last cent”.

Former ministers in Arce’s administration have condemned the arrest as an abuse of power and political persecution against the Movement Toward Socialism party.

If convicted, Arce faces up to six years in prison.