Bolivia at a Standstill

Here’s the story in most all of Bolivia today – no public transportation. No microbuses carrying people to work. No big buses carrying people in between cities. A sprinkling of taxis that risk having their tires punctured. In a country where only a small percentage of families own their own car, today’s nationwide transportation strike means that much of life in Bolivia is at a standstill.

The issue is the decision by the Bolivian government to raise oil and gas prices with the new year. In a country where most families are desperately poor and struggle just to afford food, even a minor rise in fuel prices is a big hit for many families. In my neighborhood the buses have just raised their fares by 50% to cover the steady increases in gas prices.

Bolivians are especially angry because, even though the gas is produced cheaply right here, they are still forced to pay prices based on world market prices. Even before the price hike, a gallon of gas in Bolivia sold for about $1.60 per gallon, almost as high as in the US. But here the minimum wage is $66 per month. “We are paying the same for gasoline as if we were buying it from the Persian Gulf,” says Roberto Fernàndez Teràn, an economist at the University of San Simon in Cochabamba.

Once again Bolivia’s wealthy elite seems far more concerned about toeing the global ideological line of markets first and the poor will just have to live with it. The head of the National Chamber of Commerce said here yesterday that subsidizing fuel costs for the poor “is inadmissible in an economy that is open and global like this one.”

With the country shut down for the day, he and the Bolivian government may both need to rethink their positions.