Bolivia's blockade crisis reopens a deep racial divide

The social conflict in Bolivia has split the country once again. The road blockade led by Indigenous peasants, which has besieged La Paz for more than a month, has brought expressions of racism to the surface in the capital. Worn down by the lack of gasoline and food and by soaring prices, some residents lash out at the protesters —and the hostility runs in both directions.

In a wealthy La Paz neighborhood, graffiti appeared inciting violence against Indigenous people — be patriotic, kill an Indian — while social media carries messages blaming the peasants for paralyzing the city. In the opposite direction, protesters demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz heckle lighter-skinned people who approach their gatherings, shouting get out, we don't want q'aras! ( whites, in Aymara). The divide is also economic and geographic: Indigenous people are the majority on the high slopes, at nearly 4,000 meters, while the residential neighborhoods of white-skinned residents are concentrated in the southern zone, 500 meters lower.

For Carlos Macusaya, of the Indianist collective Jichha, in Bolivia it is normal for non-Indigenous people to run the country, but the reverse causes revulsion. The economic and political rise of Aymara, Quechua and small farmers during nearly 20 years of Movement for Socialism governments (2006-2025), led until 2019 by the first Indigenous president, Evo Morales, reshaped social classes and generated tension. According to Macusaya, the rejection by part of the elites turned into resentment and, today, into a desire for disciplining expressed in calls to send the army into the streets.