PeaceInternational freight transporters began a strike on Wednesday and blocked roads in five of Bolivia’s nine departments, one of which borders northern Chile, in protest against fuel and dollar shortages.
“It has been decided to take a decisive vote and go on strike from midnight (on Wednesday) for 72 hours,” the leader of the private Bolivian Chamber of Heavy Transport, Héctor Mercado, told the press.
“We have no fuel at the pumps, that is the worst concern, we have no dollars in Bolivia,” he explained.
The Bolivian state highway authority (ABC) said in a report that there are 22 roadblocks in the regions of Oruro (west), Cochabamba (center), Santa Cruz (east), Potosí (southwest) and Chuquisaca (southeast).
The largest number of blockades is in Oruro, linked by two busy highways to the ports of Arica and Iquique in northern Chile.
The protesters placed their trucks and passenger buses on the roads, blocking all traffic, but no incidents have been reported so far.
On Wednesday, service stations were filled with long lines of all types of vehicles waiting to fill up with diesel and gasoline.
Fuel shortages are recurrent every two or three months in Bolivia, while the government argues that rumors on social networks encourage greater demand.
For their part, drivers point out that the lack of dollars also limits import trade and that transport units reduce their work activity.
The state oil company YPFB reported this week that it has four ships with 220,000 barrels of crude oil and about 100 million liters of fuel in the Chilean port of Arica, but due to wave and logistical problems they could not be unloaded.
President Luis Arce revealed on social media X that he spoke by phone with his Chilean colleague, Gabriel Boric, to speed up the unloading and asked for the suspension of the blockades, since the tanker trucks must transport the liquid from Arica to Bolivia along roads where there are roadblocks.
Since last year, Bolivia has reported lower foreign exchange earnings due to a decrease in gas sales, its main source of income until 2020.
The Arce government had to use its international reserves to subsidize the price of imported fuels.
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– 2024-08-09 12:26:26
