Blockades, marches and human shields: Bolivia’s farmers resist as land opened up to industry

Indigenous groups organised mass protests over a series of deals by the president, Rodrigo Paz, that prioritise agribusiness and mining interests

From her home in the Bolivian Amazon, Vivian Palomequi walked for a month and more than 560 miles (900km) to the capital, La Paz.

She arrived in late April to protest over a law she fears would open the door to accelerated deforestation and land privatisation. “We declared a state of emergency and started marching,” says Palomequi, who leads a peasant farmers’ union. “We had no other choice.”

The march was part of a https://revistanomadas.com/marcha-indigena-y-campesina-frente-a-retrocesos-agrarios-con-consecuencias-socio-ecologicas-graves-y-atentatorias-contra-los-derechos-humanos/">wave of pushbacks against the environmental policies of Bolivia’s https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/20/rodrigo-paz-pereira-bolivia-wins-presidential-runoff-electiion-right-wing">new government, which has staffed ministries with former agroindustry leaders, struck deals to open protected areas to mining and criminalised environmental defenders.