La Paz saw its security forces turn violent against massive demonstrations in June, arresting scores and wounding many more as police broke up major protests. The operation closed out a stretch of unrest that had run more than fifty days, driven by a range of grievances but centered, above all, on one demand: that President Rodrigo Paz step down. It was the most severe confrontation yet between his administration and the social movements that have driven Bolivian politics for a generation.
The blockades and marches had already begun to fade by the time Paz declared a 90-day state of exception, a move that handed the security apparatus expanded authority and formally outlawed the road blockades that had strangled the country's economy and energy supply for over seven weeks.
