As mass protest marches, violence and polarization worsen daily, the situation in Bolivia is veering out of control, seemingly set for foreign intervention. Large parts of the nation have been paralyzed for 41 days because of the marches and road blockades directed against the policies of the Rodrigo Paz government. Keep in mind the June 5 warning from the 13-nation Shield of the Americas which warned that this U.S.-led group won’t tolerate the destabilization of the Paz government by protests allegedly financed by “dirty money, drug trafficking and transnational crime.” War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s warning to Bolivia not to fall prey to the “old status quo of narcoterrorist dominance” was a direct reference to former President Evo Morales, whom the Shield of the Americas claims led “two decades of corrupt government.”
Any kind of foreign intervention in this volatile situation would blow up the entire region, where Peru, Ecuador and Colombia are all already suffering from extreme instability and polarization, and the large indigenous populations in Peru and Ecuador add a volatile mix as Bolivia’s indigenous population is increasingly mobilized. The participation of such racist/fascist groups as the Santa Cruz Youth Union in the Bolivian conflict, often collaborating with the police or military, has exacerbated tensions in Santa Cruz, the southeastern department known for promoting separatism based on its population’s “whiteness.” Other mobilized groups marching to La Paz have called for “civil war.”
