Bolivia arrives at the end of 2025 with an unexpected political scenario for a country that just two months ago celebrated the start of a new political cycle away from the left. President Rodrigo Paz, who took power on November 8 after … to win the second electoral round, publicly clashes with his vice-president, Edmand Lara, who declared himself an “opposition” and accuses the government of govern “for the rich”.
The rift, which had been brewing silently during the first weeks of his mandate, erupted days before Christmas and deepened in the last week of the year, leaving Bolivia with a divided government, protests from social sectors and an economic agenda marked by decisions deemed unpopular.
The breaking point was Supreme Decree 5503, approved by President Paz as part of an economic emergency plan that removed fuel subsidies, immediately increasing gasoline and diesel prices. The government defended the measure as inevitable in the face of an economy “on the brink of collapse”, but Lara called it a measure “hunger decree”.
Since then, the vice-president has not only rejected the decision, but aligned himself with the mobilized sectors, supported the protests and publicly questioned the president’s ministers and advisers, whom he insulted in videos broadcast notably on social networks. “I am the opposition, but constructive opposition » Lara said, marking an unprecedented distance for an acting vice president.
The confrontation ceased to be an internal disagreement when Lara accused the president of surrounding himself with “corrupt people” and assured that his mission was to fight corruption. In a series of messages, he declared that, if the people decide to revoke the presidential mandate in two years, “they will not be afraid” and will go “through the front door”.
These statements provoked an immediate reaction from the presidential environment. The Deputy Minister of Autonomies, Andrea Barrientos, denounced an alleged “plot plan” against President Paz, in which Lara and sectors linked to former President Evo Morales would have aligned.
The president himself has spoken. “I don’t do TikTok, I act,” Paz said after signing agreements with unions to mitigate the impact of the economic decree. He defended the removal of the subsidy, pointing out that the state was losing up to $10 million a day and warning that maintaining the system would have bankrupted the country within months.
The crisis further worsened on Monday when the government accused the vice president of trying to influence the Bolivian police and the Special Force to Combat Drug Trafficking (FELCN). The Deputy Minister of Social Defense publicly denounced the fact that Lara called several times to ask for jobs and places within the police institution.
“Police is not a political spoils nor an employment agency,” the authority said, assuring that the police commander was appointed on the basis of meritocracy and no suggestions were accepted from any political actor, including the vice president.
The episode gained international significance after it was learned that 700 kilos of cocaine, hidden in wood and destined for Spain, had left that country a few months earlier, under the previous administration. Lara had denounced the inefficiency and corruption of the FELCN, but the government responded that the shipment had left in October, before Paz’s inauguration, and that the general accusations were only “confusing” the institution.
The political confrontation is taking place in an extremely delicate economic context for Bolivia. According to the National Institute of Statistics, Bolivia closed the year with cumulative inflation of 19.22%, one of the highest in recent decades. Staples such as tomatoes, meat and carrots have seen sharp increases, while fuel shortages have affected transport, production and food supplies.
The government claims to have received a devastated country, with a high budget deficit, a lack of dollars and a paralyzed state. In his inauguration speech, Paz spoke of “the worst crisis in forty years” and accused the governments of the Movement to Socialism of having squandered more than $40 billion during the gas bonanza.
As his government fragmented, Paz made rapid progress on foreign policy. He reestablished formal contacts with the United States, broken since 2008, and received Undersecretary of State Christopher Landau in La Paz, who assured that Washington saw in Bolivia “a new era” of cooperation. The new government has also relaunched dialogue with neighboring countries and the European Union, seeking funding and support to stabilize the economy.
Vice President Lara insists he is not seeking to destabilize, but rather to “correct course.” President Paz, for his part, is determined to consolidate his authority and advance structural reforms, even at the cost of political attrition.
Bolivia thus closes 2025 with an economic crisis and a government that promised unity, but his administration began marked by an internal confrontation.
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