LA PAZ — Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz announced on Monday that he will cut his salary and those of his cabinet ministers by half, saying the move demonstrates the government’s “commitment to the country” as the nation grapples with escalating unrest.
Paz made the pledge at an event in Sucre, the country’s constitutional capital, as protests and roadblocks entered their fourth week. Demonstrations demanding his resignation and a reversal of austerity measures have disrupted supply chains in La Paz and El Alto, producing acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine that are affecting markets, hospitals and petrol stations.
The protesters are pressing Paz’s centrist administration to abandon spending cuts and restore subsidies to ease rising living costs. Paz, who assumed office in November and inherited a struggling economy, has defended the fiscal measures, including cuts to public spending and reductions in fuel subsidies, as necessary steps to stabilise public finances.
Trump has long sought to broaden the accords he helped broker in 2020, when the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain became the first Arab states in a quarter-century to formally recognise Israel; Morocco and Sudan later followed.