{"id":131062,"date":"2024-11-28T15:00:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T08:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131062"},"modified":"2024-11-28T15:00:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T08:00:52","slug":"everything-is-expensive-bolivia-faces-a-shocking-economic-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131062","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Everything is expensive!&#8217; Bolivia faces a shocking economic collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) \u2014 Fuel is rapidly becoming one of Bolivia\u2019s scarcest commodities.<\/p>\n<p>Long lines of vehicles snake for several kilometers outside gas stations all over Bolivia, once South America\u2019s second-largest producer of natural gas. Some of the queues don\u2019t budge for days.<\/p>\n<p>While frustration builds, drivers like Victor Garc\u00eda now eat, sleep and socialize around their stationary trucks, waiting to buy just a few gallons of diesel \u2014 unless the station runs dry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen, but we\u2019re going to be worse off,\u201d said Garc\u00eda, 66, who inched closer to the pump Tuesday as the hours ticked by in El Alto, a bare-bones sprawl beside Bolivia\u2019s capital in the Andean altiplano.<\/p>\n<p>Bolivia\u2019s monthslong fuel crunch comes as the nation\u2019s foreign currency reserves plummet, leaving Bolivians <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bolivia-economy-us-dollar-42f815800dd18eb0952590bb8b968cfd\">unable to find U.S. dollars<\/a><\/span> at banks and exchange houses. Imported goods that were once commonplace have become scarce.<\/p>\n<p>The fuel crisis has created a sense that the country is coming undone, <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bolivia-economy-distrust-arce-morales-cdb4672eb26c68d130df924fa2913403\">disrupting economic activity<\/a><\/span> and everyday life for millions of people, hurting commerce and farm production and sending food prices soaring.<\/p>\n<p>Mounting public anger <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bolivia-morales-arce-political-economic-crisis-d38051e051a2e6473a18133e4a9c6120\">has driven crowds into the streets<\/a><\/span> in recent weeks, piling pressure on leftist President Luis Arce to ease the suffering ahead of a tense election next year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want effective solutions to the shortage of fuel, dollars and the increase in food prices,\u201d said Reinerio Vargas, the vice rector of Gabriel Ren\u00e9 Moreno Autonomous University in the eastern province of Santa Cruz, where hundreds of desperate truckers and residents flooded main squares Tuesday to vent their anger at Arce\u2019s inaction and demand early elections.<\/p>\n<p>In a similar eruption of discontent, protesters shouting \u201cEverything is expensive!\u201d marched through the streets of the capital, La Paz, last week.<\/p>\n<p>Bolivians say Arce\u2019s image has suffered not only because of the crisis but also because his government insists that it doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDiesel sales are in the process of returning to normal,\u201d Economy Minister Marcelo Montenegro said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Arce has repeatedly vowed that his government will end the fuel shortages and lower the prices of basic goods by arbitrary deadlines. On Nov. 10, he again promised he would \u201cresolve this issue\u201d in 10 days.<\/p>\n<p>As the deadlines come and go, the black market currency exchange rate has risen to nearly 40% more than the official rate.<\/p>\n<p>Arce\u2019s office did not respond to interview requests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe queues are getting longer and longer,\u201d said 38-year-old driver Ramiro Morales, who needed a bathroom after four hours in line Tuesday but feared losing his place if he went searching for one. \u201cPeople are exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a shocking turnaround for the landlocked nation of 12 million people that was a South American economic success story in the 2000s, when the commodities bonanza generated tens of billions of dollars under the nation\u2019s first Indigenous president, former President Evo Morales. <\/p>\n<p>Morales, Arce\u2019s one-time mentor, is his present-day rival in the fight to be the ruling party\u2019s candidate next year.<\/p>\n<p>But when the commodities boom ended, prices slumped and gas production dwindled. Now, Bolivia spends an estimated $56 million a week to import most of its gasoline and diesel from Argentina, Paraguay and Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Economy Minister Montenegro on Tuesday pledged that the government would continue providing fuel subsidies that critics say it can\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n<p>Banners from two years ago boasting that Bolivia\u2019s inflation is the lowest in South America still greet tourists arriving at El Alto International Airport. Now, inflation is among the highest in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Fuel shortages prevent farmers from getting their produce to distribution centers and markets, triggering a sharp price hike for food staples.<\/p>\n<p>Last week in La Paz and neighboring El Alto, hungry Bolivians jostled in long lines to buy rice after much-delayed shipments finally arrived from Santa Cruz, the country\u2019s economic engine some 850 kilometers (528 miles) away.<\/p>\n<p>With the diesel shortage affecting everything from the operation of tractors to the sourcing of machinery parts, the shortage is also hurting farmers during the crucial planting season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout diesel, there is no food for 2025,\u201d said Klaus Frerking, the vice president of the Eastern Agricultural Chamber of Bolivia.<\/p>\n<p>The prices of potatoes, onions and milk have doubled in El Alto\u2019s main wholesale food market in the past month, vendors said, overshooting the country\u2019s nearly 8% inflation rate.<\/p>\n<p>Nervous Bolivians are cutting back on their consumption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to search a lot to find the cheapest food,\u201d said 67-year-old Angela Mamani, struggling to pull together meals for her six grandchildren at El Alto\u2019s open-air market Tuesday. She planned to buy vegetables but didn\u2019t have enough cash and went home empty-handed.<\/p>\n<p>This week, Arce\u2019s government presented a 2025 budget \u2014 with a 12% increase in spending \u2014 that drew backlash from lawmakers and business leaders who said it would lead to more debt and more inflation.<\/p>\n<p>While the governing Movement Toward Socialism party tears itself apart in the power struggle between Arce and Morales, both politicians have seen the economic morass as a way to strengthen their positions ahead of 2025 elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey deny there are problems. They blame external contexts and conflicts,\u201d said Bolivian economic analyst Gonzalo Ch\u00e1vez.<\/p>\n<p>Morales\u2019 supporters last month launched 24-day protest partly targeting Arce\u2019s handling of the economy that blocked main roads and stranded commercial shipments, costing the government billions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Security forces broke up the rallies almost a month ago. But on Tuesday, Arce\u2019s government continued to blame Morales\u2019 blockades for spawning the ubiquitous fuel lines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need change,\u201d said Geanina Garc\u00eda, a 31-year-old architect scouring the grocery hub of El Alto for cheap deals \u2014 a once-routine errand that she said had turned into a nightmare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople don\u2019t live off politics, they live day to day, off of what they produce and what they earn.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>____<\/h2>\n<p>Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n      FB.init({\n              appId : '870613919693099',\n          xfbml : true,\n          version : 'v2.9'\n      });\n  };\n  (function(d, s, id){\n     var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n     if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}\n     js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n     js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n     fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n   }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bolivia-fuel-crisis-economy-arce-president-gas-b43cff9dcfebdca40d35aad6911f055f\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) \u2014 Fuel is rapidly becoming one of Bolivia\u2019s scarcest commodities. Long lines of vehicles snake for several kilometers outside gas stations all over Bolivia, once South &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=131062\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}