The President of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, declared this Wednesday the “economic and social emergency” in the country and, in this context, announced the elimination of fuel subsidies and the establishment of new prices, as well as the increase of the minimum wage by 20 percent from next month.
“I have decided to declare an economic and social emergency seeking honesty in hydrocarbon prices, a difficult but necessary decision to guarantee fuel supplies and stop the bleeding of our reserves,” he explained on his social network account X, defending that it was a “historic” measure.
The leader has announced that the funds saved by eliminating these subsidies “will not remain in centralism, but will be distributed 50 percent directly to our regions and subnational governments, ensuring that everyone’s efforts translate into better hospitals, schools and services for every Bolivian.”
Paz has defended this measure, declaring in a speech to the nation reported by the newspaper El Deber that “the elimination of poorly designed subsidies does not mean a punishment of the people, but an order of the state and a fair redistribution.”
“A sick country begins to heal only with the truth, and the truth is that we have to be honest about hydrocarbons,” he acknowledged, pointing out that “we have not come to deal with decadence, but to speak the truth and act decisively.”
So he justified the so-called “Decree for the Homeland” because “they devastated Bolivia as if in war, they left us without reserves, without dollars and with a state turned into plunder,” alluding to the government of his predecessor, now imprisoned, Luis Arce.
However, he assured that “Bolivia has hit rock bottom, but when a country hits rock bottom all it has to do is go up, and Bolivia will go up, even if it hurts for some.”
The new measures include increasing the minimum wage by 20 percent to 3,300 bolivianos (407 euros) from January 2026, while the “decent income for older adults” is 500 bolivianos (just over 60 euros).
“My absolute priority is to protect your wallet while we stabilize the country,” Paz said, before announcing the introduction of “positive administrative silence” so that no procedure slows down the work of our people. “We will defeat the ‘Tranca state’,” he assured, alluding to an expression he has used on other occasions to describe the high costs and obstacles to economic activity in the country.
The president, who became president after almost two decades under the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), added: “We will open the doors to investment with a 0 percent tax for those who repatriate their capital to produce in our country.”
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