Thousands of women, primarily Indigenous, took to the streets of La Paz on Wednesday — Bolivia’s Mother’s Day — dressed in black to mourn those killed in the past weeks of unrest and demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz.
They threatened to not allow their military-aged sons to be used against their fellow protesters.
“We demand the withdrawal of our sons who are performing their military service, because we have sent them to serve their country, not to kill their fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles, and grandparents,” stated a communiqué from the protesting women, who were convened and represented by organizations such as the Bartolina Sisa confederation, the primary union organization of peasant women in Bolivia.
If their sons were called by the state to repress the protests, they said, they would encourage them to return home and join the popular struggle.
The mobilization comes after Congress voted on Tuesday to scrap a 2020 State of Exception Law, which placed parameters on the president’s powers to declare a state of emergency and deploy military force against protests without legislative approval, effectively clearing the way for martial law and curbing protesters’ liberty of assembly and protest.
Read more: Bolivia between democracy and social conflicts
“I have constitutional instruments. Time is running out. I have to respond, I have to come up with solutions,” Paz told journalists, defending the decision.
Opposition lawmaker Sonia Siñani warned against the repeal, predicting that the action would be like “pouring gasoline on the fire.”
The protests, now entering their fourth week, have prompted criticism from residents of La Paz and El Alto, who say they are causing severe roadblocks and shortages of food, fuel, and medicine.
Business groups have estimated that the blockades are draining more than $50 million a day from the economy.
At least four people have died and over dozens injured in the unrest, and more violence and human rights violations seem imminent now that the legal constraints on the executive have been effectively rendered null.
Featured image: Bolivian mothers protesting on May 27, Mother’s Day in Bolivia.
Image credit: Myriam Bregman via X.
