OAS Backs Rodrigo Paz’s Handling of Crisis and Sets Nine Tasks for Bolivia

The Organization of American States has backed Rodrigo Paz’s presidency and endorsed the government’s handling of Bolivia’s 53-day social crisis, while laying out nine urgent tasks aimed at preventing another confrontation.

The conclusions appear in a document that the OAS Permanent Council was due to consider in Washington. Bolivia was represented by Presidential Minister Fernando Aramayo. José Luis Lupo had been appointed permanent ambassador to the OAS but had not yet been accredited.

The mission said the mandate granted by voters must be fully respected. It argued that violence, coercive blockades and attempts by some sectors to force Paz to resign threatened democratic order. The document did not identify those sectors and did not describe the events as a coup. It also praised the government for prioritizing dialogue and restraint during the state of exception, which remained in force, “without resorting to disproportionate use of public force.”

According to figures from Bolivia’s Ombudsman’s Office, the conflict left 22 people dead, including 19 nonparticipants and three protesters. It also led to 255 people being prosecuted and nearly 40 abbreviated sentences. Six of the dead were killed in the crash of a military aircraft inspecting a blocked route.

The nine recommendations call for defending democratic mandates, creating permanent plural dialogue, establishing early-warning systems, ensuring indigenous and peasant participation, protecting peaceful protest and essential services, reviving the economy, protecting journalism, approving an access-to-information law, investigating violence with due process, and strengthening the Ombudsman and judicial transparency. The information law had already passed the Senate and was awaiting final validation in the Chamber of Deputies. The mission, led by OAS Secretary-General Albert Ramdin and Panama’s foreign minister Javier Martínez-Acha, visited Bolivia on July 29 and held four dialogue sessions in La Paz and Santa Cruz with officials, business groups, transport workers, indigenous and peasant representatives, unions, journalists, academics and civil society groups.