Economic turmoil in Bolivia fuels distrust in government and its claim of a 'failed coup'

Описание: (1 Jul 2024)

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4503489

ASSOCIATED PRESS
La Paz, Bolivia - 29 June 2024
1. Drone shot of San Francisco church in downtown La Paz
2. Market area
3. People shopping, vendors set up with their merchandise
4. Pascuala Quispe enters an currency exchange store
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pascuala Quispe, 43, merchant: ++IMAGES OVER SOUNDBITE++
"There is no life anymore, there are no jobs. The Bolivian people are suffering from hunger because there are no jobs and the money we earn is not enough for anything."
6. Butcher Mery Aranda working
7. Aranda talking with a customer
8. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Mery Aranda, 37, pig butcher: ++IMAGES OVER SOUNDBITE++
"The dollar is very high and it is true that it affects everyone. Because with the dollar they (farmers) buy food for the animals (pigs), they bring the soybeans so the price of meat increases anyway."
9. View of La Paz from the market

ASSOCIATED PRESS
La Paz - 28 June, 2024
10. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Luis Arce, Bolivian President:
"Bolivia has an economy that is growing. An economy in crisis does not grow, first of all. Secondly, Bolivia has one of the lowest inflation in the region."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
La Paz - 29 June, 2024
11. Trucks filling diesel
12. Ruddy Sacaca, 30, fills his truck's tanks, UPSOUND (Spanish) "Truckers are stranded waiting to load diesel and those people are suffering because of the government. If the government had dollars, it would buy (diesel) like before. So since there are no dollars, the country is like this, walking backwards, like a crab."
13. Trucks and buses in line to buy diesel
STORYLINE:
As Bolivian President Luis Arce attempts to rally the people behind him after a failed coup attempt, Bolivians are more concerned with pressing economic issues.

Bolivians have been hit hard by economic turmoil in the small South American nation fueled by a longtime hyper-dependence on, and now a shortage of, U.S. dollars.

The economic downturn has been exacerbated by an ongoing feud between President Luis Arce and his ally-turned-rival former President Evo Morales in the lead-up to next year's presidential election.

Many Bolivians impacted by the crisis have lost trust in Arce, who denies the country is even in an economic crisis.

“Bolivia has an economy that’s growing. An economy in crisis doesn’t grow,” Arce said during a recent interview.

That was contradicted by both economists and dozens of Bolivians.

Bolivia's economic crisis is rooted in a complex combination of dependence on the dollar, draining international reserves, mounting debt, and failures to produce products like gas, once the Andean nation's economic boon.

This has meant that Bolivia has primarily become an import economy “totally dependent on dollars,” said Gonzalo Chávez, an economist at Bolivia’s Catholic University.

That once worked in Bolivia's favor, driving the country's “economic miracle” as it became one of the region’s fastest-growing economies.

While Bolivia sits on the world’s biggest stores of lithium, a high-value metal key to transitioning to a green economy, investment is only viable in the long term, largely due to government failures, said Chávez.

Meanwhile, inflation has outpaced economic growth, and most Bolivians face unstable work conditions with minuscule pay.

The shortage of dollars has also led to the emergence of a black market for the currency, with many sellers bringing in greenbacks from neighboring Peru and Chile and selling them at a gouged price.

What's more, broad discontent has fueled waves of protests and strikes in recent months.


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