Hunger does not topple regimes, it strengthens dictatorships

By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 17/03/2025

Guest columnist.
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In the week ending, March 2, 2025, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos admitted what thousands of Bolivians already knew: there is no liquidity to import fuel and meet the country's fuel demand. Following the announcement, Arce Catacora himself, in a press conference, attempted to convince the country that it was all a small problem that could be solved with more loans. In other words, he is asking us to finance today's fuel with tomorrow's taxes.

Social media was filled with memes commemorating the overthrow of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in October 2003. Phrases like: "We'll overthrow Goni for less than this," "We're going to repeat the Gas War," and "We're going to overthrow Arce Catacora" are featured on Facebook walls and X accounts. The idea of ​​a brave people "defeating" the evil president who wanted to "give" gas to Chile is still very much alive in the collective imagination of the average Bolivian. However, Sánchez de Lozada's departure from power is not even a source of pride, much less a triumph that Bolivians can celebrate and claim as their own. Let's see:

The violent repression of peaceful protests by ordinary citizens is one of the myths that sustains the narrative of the Gas War. However, very thorough investigations, for example, The Amazon Project, conducted by the Colombian DAS, revealed that the FARC had seventy troops deployed during the events of October 2003, and the National Liberation Army (ELN), read this carefully, five hundred combatants.

Likewise, the late Felipe Quispe, known as El Mallku, an indigenous leader, confessed on several occasions to the involvement of militiamen trained in combat and the use of explosives to, in his own words, remove the gringo from the palace.

Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was not brought down by citizen protests, but by a fighting force that had also developed a mastery of communication and public opinion management in universities, the media, and incendiary pamphlets, such as The Rabid Toy. Furthermore, his departure is not a cause for celebration, but rather a cause for sadness, given that Bolivia has been captured by the criminal franchise of 21st-Century Socialism.

Therefore, to think that there will be a Gasoline War that will bring down Arce Catacora and end the Movement Toward Socialism is, to put it mildly, a mere illusion, since ordinary citizens lack the training and resources that were used in October 2003.

Additionally, there is another element to consider: everything that is happening in Bolivia is part of a macabre plan to impoverish the population. Of course, they won't tell you this directly, but instead use a lure: the newspeak George Orwell and Friedrich von Hayek taught us about. Poverty ceases to be a painful situation to be overcome and becomes a revolutionary virtue; the theft of other people's property is no longer a crime, but a plan for wealth redistribution; censorship is no longer a nefarious action against freedom of thought, but a measure to protect the interests of the revolution; indoctrination displaces education, and dictatorships are now called "Governments of the People."

Look at it this way: if societies have already managed to worship poverty, well, half the work is done. They will simply be submissive and obedient to their masters. To verify what I'm saying, look at what happens in Cuba: street protests end when trucks arrive with a bit of bread, sweet potatoes, and malanga. Or in Bolivia, where many sell their votes and freedom for a few bags of noodles, grams of rice, and the promise of a position in the bureaucratic apparatus.

But if Plan A fails, there's still the option of submission through hunger, because in a country where the State owns all the wealth, a simple protest can leave a brave citizen trapped in the middle of the dictatorial machinery. Hunger doesn't topple regimes, as many naively believe, but rather strengthens dictatorships.

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