‘Everything is expensive!’ Bolivia faces a shocking economic collapse

EL ALTO, Bolivia — Fuel is rapidly becoming one of Bolivia’s scarcest goods.

Long lines of vehicles snake for several kilometers outside gas stations all over Bolivia, once South America’s second-largest producer of natural gas. Some of the queues don’t budge for days.

While frustration builds, drivers like Victor García now eat, sleep and socialize around their stationary trucks, waiting to buy just a few gallons of diesel — unless the station runs arid.

“We don’t recognize what’s going to happen, but we’re going to be worse off,” said García, 66, who inched closer to the pump Tuesday as the hours ticked by in El Alto, a bare-bones sprawl beside Bolivia’s pool in the Andean altiplano.

Bolivia’s monthslong fuel crunch comes as the country’s foreign liquid assets reserves plummet, leaving Bolivians unable to discover U.S. dollars at banks and swap houses. Imported goods that were once commonplace have become scarce.

The fuel crisis has created a sense that the country is coming undone, disrupting economic activity and everyday life for millions of people, hurting commerce and farm production and sending food prices soaring.

Mounting community rage has driven crowds into the streets in recent weeks, piling pressure on leftist President Luis Arce to ease the suffering ahead of a tense election next year.

“We desire effective solutions to the shortage of fuel, dollars and the boost in food prices,” said Reinerio Vargas, the vice rector of Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University in the eastern province of Santa Cruz, where hundreds of desperate truckers and residents flooded main squares Tuesday to vent their rage at Arce’s inaction and demand early elections.

In a similar eruption of discontent, protesters shouting “Everything is expensive!” marched through the streets of the pool, La Paz, last week.

Bolivians declare Arce’s image has suffered not only because of the crisis but also because his government insists that it doesn’t exist.

“Diesel sales are in the procedure of returning to normal,” Economy Minister Marcelo Montenegro said Tuesday.

Arce has repeatedly vowed that his government will complete the fuel shortages and lower the prices of basic goods by arbitrary deadlines. On Nov. 10, he again promised he would “resolve this issue” in 10 days.

As the deadlines arrive and leave, the black economy liquid assets swap rate has risen to nearly 40% more than the official rate.

Arce’s office did not respond to interview requests.

“The queues are getting longer and longer,” said 38-year-ancient driver Ramiro Morales, who needed a bathroom after four hours in line Tuesday but feared losing his place if he went searching for one. “People are exhausted.”

It’s a shocking turnaround for the landlocked country of 12 million people that was a South American economic achievement narrative in the 2000s, when the goods bonanza generated tens of billions of dollars under the country’s first Indigenous president, former President Evo Morales.

Morales, Arce’s one-period mentor, is his now-day rival in the fight to be the ruling event’s candidate next year.

But when the goods boom ended, prices slumped and gas production dwindled. Now, Bolivia spends an estimated $56 million a week to import most of its gasoline and diesel from Argentina, Paraguay and Russia.

Economy Minister Montenegro on Tuesday pledged that the government would continue providing fuel subsidies that critics declare it can’t afford.

Banners from two years ago boasting that Bolivia’s expense boost is the lowest in South America still greet tourists arriving at El Alto International Airport. Now, expense boost is among the highest in the region.

Fuel shortages prevent farmers from getting their produce to distribution centers and markets, triggering a sharp worth hike for food staples.

Last week in La Paz and neighboring El Alto, hungry Bolivians jostled in long lines to buy rice after much-delayed shipments finally arrived from Santa Cruz, the country’s economic engine some 850 kilometers (528 miles) away.

With the diesel shortage affecting everything from the operation of tractors to the sourcing of machinery parts, the shortage is also hurting farmers during the crucial planting period.

“Without diesel, there is no food for 2025,” said Klaus Frerking, the vice president of the Eastern Agricultural Chamber of Bolivia.

The prices of potatoes, onions and milk have doubled in El Alto’s main wholesale food economy in the history month, vendors said, overshooting the country’s nearly 8% expense boost rate.

Nervous Bolivians are cutting back on their consumption.

“You have to search a lot to discover the cheapest food,” said 67-year-ancient Angela Mamani, struggling to pull together meals for her six grandchildren at El Alto’s open-air economy Tuesday. She planned to buy vegetables but didn’t have enough liquid assets and went home vacant-handed.

This week, Arce’s government presented a 2025 apportionment — with a 12% boost in spending — that drew backlash from lawmakers and business leaders who said it would navigator to more obligation and more expense boost.

While the governing Movement Toward Socialism event tears itself apart in the power battle between Arce and Morales, both politicians have seen the economic morass as a way to strengthen their positions ahead of 2025 elections.

“They deny there are problems. They blame external contexts and conflicts,” said Bolivian economic analyst Gonzalo Chávez.

Morales’ supporters last month launched 24-day protest partly targeting Arce’s handling of the economy that blocked main roads and stranded commercial shipments, costing the government billions of dollars.

safety forces broke up the rallies almost a month ago. But on Tuesday, Arce’s government continued to blame Morales’ blockades for spawning the ubiquitous fuel lines.

“We require transformation,” said Geanina García, a 31-year-ancient architect scouring the grocery hub of El Alto for cheap deals — a once-schedule errand that she said had turned into a nightmare.

“People don’t live off politics, they live day to day, off of what they produce and what they earn.”

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