🇧🇴 Bolivian Vice President Edman Lara has publicly distanced himself from President Rodrigo Paz, demanding an end to the government’s repression after a protester was allegedly killed during a state operation to forcibly clear roadblocks amid nationwide protests over fuel shortages, economic conditions, and the government’s crackdown on opposition movements.

In a public statement, Lara accused the government of responding to “hunger, fear, and the exhaustion of the people” with “repression and arrest warrants,” and said police sent under the banner of a “humanitarian operation” brought “tear gas, dynamite, and mothers screaming and begging for it to stop.” Right-wing groups are calling for a “state of exception” to crack down further on the protests.

The Paz government denies responsibility for the killing, which would raise the death toll linked to the unrest to at least three. Authorities claim the government operation was needed to allow food, fuel, and medicine through, though protest groups say ambulances and humanitarian aid were already being permitted.

“They are trying to justify repression against indigenous communities and the left,” Claudia Herbas of Alianza Popular told Drop Site contributor Joseph Bouchard.

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