The Trump administration has thrown its full weight behind Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz, with senior officials warning that Washington will not tolerate any attempt to topple the country's right-wing government as widespread protests continue to paralyse the landlocked South American nation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Paz by phone on Thursday, assuring him that Washington was "ramping up emergency assistance and logistics operations support" to help citizens facing acute food and medical shortages caused by roadblocks that have choked supply routes across the country. The same day, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth went further, posting on social media that the US military establishment would "reject all attempts to overthrow the legitimate government" of Bolivia. Hegseth also implied that protesters — who include teachers, miners, farmers and union workers — were acting in concert with what the Trump administration calls "narco-terrorists", a term it applies broadly to drug-trafficking networks in the region. "The United States is watching," he wrote.
Paz, a pro-business conservative, came to power roughly seven months ago following elections that ended nearly two decades of governance by the left-wing Movement for Socialism (MAS). He swiftly moved to restore diplomatic ties with the United States, which had been severed in 2008 over disputes about Washington's aggressive anti-drug policies, and introduced sweeping economic reforms. Among the most contentious was the removal of fuel subsidies, which caused petrol prices to spike. An attempt to reform land tenure laws also alarmed Bolivia's politically powerful coca farmers — Bolivia is the world's third-largest producer of coca, the plant used to make cocaine but also deeply embedded in Andean culture and traditional medicine. The combination of economic hardship and policy anxiety has driven demonstrators into the streets since May, with some calling outright for Paz's resignation. The president has reshuffled his cabinet, promised to cut his own salary by half, and secured legislative approval to deploy the military against blockades, yet the protests have persisted.
The Trump administration's intervention fits a broader pattern of assertive US engagement across Latin America since Trump's return to the presidency in January 2025. Washington has declared the entire Western Hemisphere its "neighbourhood", designated multiple regional criminal networks as terrorist organisations, and launched the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C) — a security initiative grouping right-wing governments across the region. Paz attended the coalition's inaugural summit in March.
The stakes are high for both countries. For Bolivia, where foreign currency reserves have dwindled alongside declining natural gas exports, US emergency assistance could provide crucial short-term relief. For Washington, Bolivia represents a test case for its strategy of backing friendly governments against what it frames as narco-political destabilisation. Critics, however, warn that labelling a broad, economically driven protest movement as a coup attempt risks inflaming tensions and delegitimising genuine popular grievances.