As Protests Roil Bolivia, We Sit Down With the President

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio, News.

**David Gura** (0:08)
In Bolivia, the political wins have shifted. After almost two decades of socialist rule, the South American country recently elected a centrist president, Rodrigo Paz.
Paz celebrated his victory as a win for the whole country. He called for an end to hatred, racism and division, and a new national unity.
The Trump administration welcomed the win, and in President Paz's first seven months in office, Paz has pledged to make the country more attractive to outside investors, who have long been interested in Bolivia's natural resources, including rare earths and lithium. But Paz has gotten off to a bad start with many Bolivians who are struggling to make ends meet. Inflation is hovering around 14 percent. Bolivia has a massive debt load, and US dollars are scarce. I decided to go to Bolivia because I wanted to see firsthand the changes President Paz is trying to implement. I lived in Bolivia in 2005 when Evo Morales and his movement toward socialism came to power. I set up an interview with President Paz a few weeks ago. We were going to sit down in Bolivia's presidential palace to talk about his agenda. But that morning, our plans were disrupted. Protests engulfed La Paz, and demonstrators had blocked highways across the country. As the day wore on, a group of teachers attacked the education ministry, and mine workers threw dynamite on the city streets. What kicked off these protests was a decision Paz made a few months earlier to get rid of fuel subsidies. The price of gasoline rose sharply. And what really rankled many Bolivians is the government's state-owned supplier provided what came to be called trash gasoline, watered-down fuel that damaged vehicles. After that, frustration built with Paz and with his inability to improve the country's economy faster.
On that afternoon in mid-May, police blocked the entrances to the plaza where the presidential palace is located. It took a while, but eventually we got the go-ahead to climb through barricades.
We were told to wait in an empty cafe for a call from one of the president's advisors. As the hours ticked by, we heard demonstrators just a few blocks away and explosions. Tear gas hung in the air along with this central question President Paz is facing. Can he convince investors Bolivia is open for business and Bolivians, that business will be good for them. I'm David Gura and this is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, Bolivia at a crossroads. Can the country's first non-socialist president in two decades deliver on his promises to open up his country to the world or will mass protests push him out?
To transform Bolivia's economy, President Rodrigo Paz wants to harness his country's rich mineral wealth. And the president talks a lot in particular about lithium, an essential component of batteries, used for everything from cell phones to electric cars. Bolivia has one of the largest lithium reserves in the world, and a lot of it is located beneath the sprawling Salar de Uyuni. It's a salt flat on a two-mile high plateau that is so vast, it's visible from space.

**José David Valda Belén** (3:47)
We are at 3,650 meters above sea level, my friend.

**David Gura** (3:53)
Very high.

**José David Valda Belén** (3:54)
Very high, very high. It's the largest salt flats on the world, you know.

**David Gura** (3:58)
José David Valda Belén is a tour guide based in Uyuni.

**José David Valda Belén** (4:01)
This is the east, the west, north and south. So the lithium mining just down on the south part of the Salar.

**David Gura** (4:10)
President Paz says that if the country can develop these reserves, it'll improve the economic fortunes of some 12 million Bolivians.
But like others who live in this area, José is worried about the impact of lithium mining and production. Getting the lithium from underneath this salt flat to a usable form takes a lot of water. Beneath this, there's a layer of water.

**José David Valda Belén** (4:30)
A layer of water, yeah. So what they do, it's like they build big pots, you know, huge pots. They pump the salty water and that and these places and then evaporate it.

**David Gura** (4:43)
Okay.

**José David Valda Belén** (4:44)
But then they need a lot of sweet water or fresh water to clean, to wash the mineral.

**David Gura** (4:50)
José says farmers worry they'll lose access to the water they need.

**José David Valda Belén** (4:54)
So that means like these dry areas can get more dry, you know. So that will be a big problem for these people.

**David Gura** (5:01)
José also says people here worry about how mining would impact this singularly beautiful place, which attracts visitors from around the world. More than a million people came to Bolivia last year, and they contributed more than $800 million to the country's economy.