Bolivia’s Fuel Shock Splits The Government From Inside

Key Points

• Vice President Edmand Lara says he is “constructive opposition” and calls President Rodrigo Paz corrupt and a “puppet.”
• Decree 5503 ended fuel subsidies: diesel 3.72→9.80 bolivianos per liter; gasoline 6.96; protests followed.
• Paz calls it triage. Lara calls it a hit to living costs and his office.

Bolivia’s emergency plan has become a feud. Lara has turned on Paz while still vice president. In TikTok videos he urges street pressure and says he is now opposition. Paz has mostly avoided direct replies.

Decree 5503, promulgated in mid-December, declared an economic emergency and scrapped fuel subsidies. Diesel jumped from 3.72 to 9.80 bolivianos per liter (+160%) and gasoline rose to 6.96.

Lara tried to overturn the decree in parliament and failed, then warned the diesel shock will lift transport costs and food prices. Paz’s team argues the subsidy model had become unsustainable.

Officials cited costs around $10 million per day and projected 2026 subsidy spending near $3.5 billion, about 6.4% of GDP.

Lara Clashes with Cabinet Amid Reform Disputes

The government pointed to a $550 million CAF liquidity loan as a bridge and announced offsets: a 20% minimum-wage increase to 3,300 bolivianos plus higher Renta Dignidad and Juancito Pinto payments.

Lara was drafted onto Paz’s slate at the last minute. A former police officer who built fame denouncing graft, he highlights a past selling used clothing and a wife who drove a taxi. He presents himself as an outsider voice for poorer voters long tied to the MAS era.

The institutional fight followed. Lara attacked a cabinet he says revived the 1985–2005 elite. His only minister pick, Freddy Vidovic, fell after a 2015 corruption conviction resurfaced, and the justice portfolio was later shut.

Lara then targeted Presidency Minister José Luis Lupo, a five-time viceminister and former vice-presidential candidate for Samuel Doria Medina.

Lupo’s ministry controls seven vice-ministries. A new legislative-coordination post with overlapping functions prompted Lara’s camp to call it unconstitutional, and his supporters marched.

Analyst Diego Ayo and Aymara communicator Quya Reyna describe a collision between technocratic governance and a caudillo-style mobilizer. Lara’s flare-ups, from calling ministers “pelotudos” to blaming a marital video on AI, keep the rupture loud.