Social leaders reject dialogue between the COB and the Government of Bolivia

Published at: 16/06/2026 08:50 AM

Several social organizations and peasant sectors related to former president Evo Morales expressed their resounding rejection of any possibility of dialogue between the Bolivian Workers' Central (COB) and the Government of President Rodrigo Paz on Monday.

The demonstrators, who have been holding pressure measures for 46 days in five departments of the country, warned that they will not be aware of any agreement reached by the union leadership if it does not have the explicit support of the bases mobilized in the blockades.

The peasant leader Nelson Virreira in an interview with Telesur described the call for dialogue as a deception and urged the executive secretary of the COB, Mario Argollo, to maintain consistency with the revolutionary principles of the organization.

Along the same lines, leaders of the Intercultural and the Single Trade Union Confederation of Peasant Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) pointed out that, if a unilateral negotiation were to take place, the leaders would lose all authority to demobilize citizens who maintain control of the roads and who demand, as a non-negotiable demand, the immediate resignation of the president.

Former President Evo Morales expressed his support for the resistance of the mobilized sectors, who have intensified their protests in the face of the lack of government solutions to the economic and social crisis that the nation is going through.

While the coca growing associations reinforce the blockade despite the low temperatures, the leaders ratified their decision to mass the measures of force throughout the national territory, completely discarding any partial pact that does not contemplate the departure of President Paz from power.

Political tension has recently been aggravated by the expulsion and deportation of an Argentine human rights delegation that was trying to verify allegations of violations of fundamental guarantees during the protests.

Although the Government is trying to resume talks to stop the country's paralysis, the rejection of social movements underlines the depth of discontent and the firm determination of the conflicting sectors, who insist that the Executive has failed to provide satisfactory answers to the urgent needs of the Bolivian people.

Mazo News Team