Introduccion

Beyond narcotrafficking and other illicit activities, the protests in Bolivia have reached the level of grey zone or insurgent operations by those seeking to bring down the Paz government, although not commonly recognized as such. The actors involved are well funded and coordinated, deliberately seizing or blocking militarily relevant objectives such as key road segments, designed to cut off the capital and shut down the economy.

They use highly lethal capabilities such as dynamite and sometimes arms, even ambushing police and other government forces. Meanwhile, the Bolivian government and security forces treat these actors as civilians, not-combatants, worrying about escalation, or being jailed, as happened before, if those political, military or police leaders act too aggressively.

The recently inaugurated government of Rodrigo Paz is working to address those challenges, in part through a fundamental foreign policy re-orientation to rebuild cooperation with the United States yet also finding that reorientation is accelerating the mobilization of those seeking to oust his government.

From May 21 through May 31, 2026, the author visited Bolivia during that nation’s political, and security crisis, interviewing over 40 Bolivian experts on the challenges in and unfolding situation in the country. This work, one of three produced from those interactions and supporting research, analyzes the nation’s security challenges and the work of the Paz government to address them.