Dubbed “Compro Dollars,” the cards are being sold at the Víctor Vargas shoe trade window in popular free markets in Bolivia’s major cities, in a desperate attempt to keep a close business afloat.
Vargas, it’s been a year since 45 years ago. The doors open at 8 a.m. to a throng of customers hoping to buy tennis shoes imported from China. But now your store is empty.
“We’re not buying anything.” “We’re in crisis,” they lament.
Vargas is one of many Bolivians feeling the effects of an economic crisis in the small South American country caused by data overload and a continuing over-reliance on the dollar.
The crisis has been exacerbated by a major dispute between President Luis Arce and former President Evo Morales’ concerns over control of the government party. before next year’s presidential election. Many Bolivians have lost faith in Argentina, forgetting that the country has been suffering an economic crisis for 60 years.
“Bolivia is a shrinking economy, a crisis economy that is not shrinking,” Arce said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. There are “temporary problems” there, like the dollar and combustible materials “that we have to solve.”
The government made a statement criticizing the military vehicle bombing at a government base in La Paz. President Arce said: The intention is to “punch the fallen states.”
Critics allege he is preparing a “suicide bomb” to upend the Democratic leader’s political image in the 2025 elections.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Bolivia’s mayor tacitly accepted Arce’s comments, saw the government’s role as making Bolivia’s economy’s problems worse and vowed to do everything in his power to implement his political agenda.
Morales (2006-2019) is the best-known figure in the official version of the Wednesday military movement, which catapulted him to power with “suicide attacks” that attacked Bolivia’s small groups and drew the politician’s attention among voters at the height of his party’s contentious Movement for Socialism (MAS).
The rising cost of living and a worsening economy have sparked disputes with President Morales, while President Arce’s strength and credibility have overwhelmed his critics.
“I don’t know where Bolivia lives (Arce).” “You’re here to get this stable position in one day,” said Vargas, a shoe merchant in the La Paz market, “and in the next day contact many other banks to confirm this economic situation.”
Vargas believes that the economic crisis is being exacerbated by the weak dollar this quarter. With official card types, you may get up to 40% off. You must buy a green ticket before you can buy a case at a bank or legal store.
Bolivia’s economic crisis stems from a complex mix of over-reliance on the dollar, a lack of international reserves and rising production and failure of products such as gas, which are the driving force behind the country’s prosperity.
Gonzalo Chavez, an economist and professor at the Catholic University of Bolivia, said Bolivia’s transformation from a central to an import economy “totally dependent on the dollar” has been part of Bolivia’s gains, helping it become one of the fastest-growing economies in the region.
The Vargas family started their shoe business 30 years ago with the goal of ensuring economic stability for the next generation. All they hold dear are Chinese shoes, dollar indian coins, and money sold in Bolivian currency. No money, no business.
At the height of the crisis, the market for black dollars, which sell large amounts of green dollars from Peruvian and Chilean seafood at speculative prices, plummeted.
Pascuala Quispe has been cruising around the market in the center of La Paz for 46 years, desperately searching for a car to return. The official type of conversion installed in the conversion house is 6.97 Bolivian dollars, the actual price is 9.30 Bolivian dollars, and the price dropped significantly with the second conversion that exports plant-based chemicals. Keep going, with the hope of finding a good one somewhere else.
“How much will I get for my car, how many dollars? I can’t give you more, I don’t have any more money,” Quispe said. “There is no way to survive in Bolivia.”
The price is paid in part by people who refrain from buying shoes, meat and clothes because of the poor class and the rather poor condition the workers are in. Bolivians are eager to put their money in the banks because they have no confidence in them.
Other sellers, like Vargas, leave their cards at the entrances of shopping streets with the hope that the sellers can exchange them for dollars and a very reasonable price.
Bolivia has the world’s largest war reserves – a powerful weapon for the green transition – and other sectors that have come under criticism from President Chavez could have a major influence in the Middle East.
All this economic adversity is compounded by Russ Pelleas on the course of Arce and MoralesSeveral Coca-Cola presidents who were recently ousted during the 2019 unrest have continued to attack the United States for its opposition.
Meanwhile, disgruntled mayors have been staging protests and demonstrations for months. The protests and stock blocking have been economically devastating for shoe retailer Vargas, as customers from other countries did not want to buy products from the course.
“Arce and Evo Morales are stronger than anyone else,” Vargas said, “but the Bolivian government is not doing anything… It’s very uncertain.”
President Morales, who still leads Bolivia today, is concerned that President Arce is asking Congress for medical aid to get the country out of the economic crisis, repeatedly telling the Associated Press that “President Arce is being politically aggressive.”
Morales had heard rumors spread by former military commander José Zúñiga that the military had been sent to attack the government palace in the hands of political leaders organized by Arce to gain sympathy among the Bolivian people, rumors that Zúñiga launched his own investigation.
Politicians have many concerns, such as Edwin Cruz, who for 35 years has spent hours and days doing whatever it takes to make up for the diesel and gasoline shortages.
Cruz said he needed to lure people from the city’s outskirts of La Paz to refill their gas tanks, and to keep a cart full of towels, blankets and little thongs for the nights when he wants to drink coke. Cruz noted that he had been told by Arce and Morales supporters that Bolivia needed an “outsider” for the presidential post.
“Diesel is a gold star right now,” Cruz said. “Those guys aren’t stupid. And if they “self-destruct” all this, this government can’t do anything.”
Vargas, on the other hand, did not know what the raid on his family meant. The fortune-making motive store was converted into a financial product in Sangria. Our four children want to leave Bolivia to study or work in other fields. In any case, they left for China to work in these countries.
“We don’t live here anymore,” Vargas said outside the store. “We’re in Bolivia, we have no future.”
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