Anti-Austerity Protests Shake Bolivia. Here’s Why. w/ Dr. Rodrigo Acuña (G&R 499)

Bolivia is in the midst of a historic uprising against a right-wing government that has rolled back decades of social gains, slashed subsidies, and opened the door to foreign corporate control—triggering mass protests that have paralyzed the country. Dr. Rodrigo Acuña, a Latin American journalist and longtime observer of Bolivian politics, explains how the 2025 election of Rodrigo Bass—a former U.S.-educated, Trump-admiring hardliner—marked a dramatic reversal from Evo Morales’ plurinational, anti-imperialist vision. The new government’s pro-market reforms, including a controversial law allowing banks to seize farmers’ land, have ignited fury among indigenous communities, miners, cocaleros, and unions—many of whom were mobilized under Morales’ era. What’s more, Acuña reveals that the U.S. played a central role in the 2019 soft coup that ousted Morales, with the OAS and DEA acting as instruments of regime change. Now, with the military’s loyalty in question and the U.S. openly calling the protests a 'coup,' Bolivia stands at a crossroads: either a violent crackdown or a potential revolutionary resurgence. Acuña warns that the same playbook is being used across Latin America—from Venezuela, where the Rodriguez administration has embraced free-market policies and extradited key allies like Alex Saab, to Cuba, where U.S. sanctions are systematically dismantling the revolution’s achievements.