Bolivia After One Year of Paz: Judicial Meltdown
After 12 months of painful economic corrections, judicial crackdowns and the collapse of his governing coalition, Bolivia's president faces a skeptical electorate heading into year two.
Published: November 9th, 2026
Author: Clara Espinoza
TOPSHOT - Bolivia's new president Rodrigo Paz waves to supporters alongside his son from a balcony of the Palacio Quemado government palace during his inauguration in La Paz on November 8, 2025. Photo by AIZAR RALDES / AFP) (Photo by AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images
The Briefing:
Bolivia's President Rodrigo Paz completed his first year in office Sunday with an approval rating that had collapsed from 65% to 32%, while disapproval climbed to 55%, according to polling firm Ipsos Ciesmori.
Paz eliminated the country's decades-old fuel subsidy, reduced the number of federal ministries from 21 to 12, and secured a US$1.9 billion IMF program — but the population is still absorbing the daily cost of those adjustments.
The year closed with Bolivia's former attorney general behind bars, the chief justice of the Supreme Court in self-imposed exile abroad, and former coalition partner Samuel Doria Medina no longer in the governing alliance.
Twelve months into one of the most consequential presidencies in Bolivia's recent history, Rodrigo Paz finds himself in a position familiar to reformers across the region: the structural work has started, but the people paying the price are losing patience.
Paz took the oath of office on November 8, 2025, following a runoff victory that ended nearly two decades of socialist governance under the Movimiento al Socialismo. He inherited a country facing its deepest economic crisis in four decades — empty fuel lines, depleted dollar reserves and an inflation rate that had reached 18% during the final stretch of the previous administration.
Economic Restructuring: The Price of the Reset
The most consequential early move was the elimination of Bolivia's fuel subsidy in December 2025, a policy that had kept pump prices artificially frozen for nearly 20 years and cost the treasury billions annually. According to the official balance released by the presidency, monthly gasoline production nearly doubled — from 61 million to 113 million liters — while diesel output rose from 16 million to 39 million liters, as smuggling incentives dried up following the price correction.
Beyond hydrocarbons, Paz restructured the executive branch, cutting the number of ministries from 21 to 12 across two rounds of cabinet reductions. The government also abolished the Financial Transactions Tax and issued 2.7 million debit cards as part of a broader financial inclusion push. In October, Bolivia's IMF board formally approved a US$1.9 billion, 36-month program to anchor the fiscal adjustment.
Economic analysts have offered a measured read on the first year. While the corrections to the previous model are broadly acknowledged, most agree the macroeconomic turnaround remains incomplete. Fitch Ratings and S&P Global did upgrade Bolivia's sovereign rating in 2026, but the population is still adjusting to higher prices for fuel, transportation and basic goods.
Governance Under Siege
The domestic political narrative was dominated not only by economic pain but by an extended crisis in the streets. Between May and June, Bolivia endured 53 consecutive days of road blockades, with campesino unions and workers' federations demanding Paz's resignation. The government ultimately navigated the crisis through dialogue, legislative authorization to deploy military forces to clear routes and a declaration of economic emergency.
The judiciary became the most volatile arena. On October 1, police detained former Attorney General Roger Mariaca at the Santa Cruz airport, two days after the United States revoked his visa over alleged drug-trafficking ties. The government accused him of leading a criminal organization within the attorney general's office that had sheltered narco-terrorism networks. The legislature subsequently removed him from office and named an interim replacement.
Then, days before the presidential anniversary, Supreme Court Chief Justice Romer Saucedo announced on social media that he had fled the country with his family, denouncing what he called a campaign of political persecution. The government dismissed his claims as a flight from legal accountability — Saucedo faces a criminal investigation for alleged ties to organized crime.
A parallel controversy that festered throughout the year involved Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, who had advised Paz's campaign and was later acknowledged as a personal adviser to the president. After Cerimedo was arrested in August on charges of attempted femicide and subsequently faced additional investigations for money laundering and alleged protection of drug traffickers, Paz publicly distanced himself — but the opposition continued to press the question of how much influence Cerimedo had wielded over internal government decisions.
Coalition Fractures and Opposition Pressure
The governing coalition entered year two in noticeably worse shape than it began. On July 27, Samuel Doria Medina — the businessman who had backed Paz after finishing third in the first round of the 2025 election — formally announced the end of his alliance with the government, citing concerns about corruption and the pace of structural change.
Former president Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, who lost to Paz in the October 2025 runoff and has since positioned himself as a critic of the administration, also questioned the first year's record, warning that economic adjustments were being made without the deeper institutional reforms the country requires. The arrest warrant for former president Evo Morales, which remains unexecuted, has been a persistent source of political criticism from multiple directions throughout the year.
The executive's relationship with the legislature also showed signs of strain. Rather than delivering the mandated annual accountability address in person, Paz submitted a written report to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly on November 6. Vice President Edmand Lara convened a formal legislative session for November 11 to receive the document.
A New Foreign Policy Direction
The clearest area of consensus achievement was foreign policy. Under his "Bolivia to the World" framework, Paz reversed what he described as two decades of ideological isolation. The symbolic high point came on October 16, when Chilean President José Antonio Kast arrived in La Paz for the first official state visit by a Chilean head of state in 71 years, since Carlos Ibáñez del Campo made the same trip in 1955. The two governments signed cooperation agreements on mining, energy and trade, while Bolivia maintained its longstanding demand for sovereign access to the sea.
At the conclusion of the visit, Kast extended a reciprocal invitation: Paz is expected to travel to Chile for a state visit in 2027.
The first year leaves Bolivia with significant structural decisions made and a repositioned international profile — but also with an electorate that entered year two far more skeptical than it was when Paz first raised his hand to swear in. Whether the economic corrections produce visible relief before the next political cycle will determine whether his project can survive the test of public patience.
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