In a nation long shaped by resource wealth and social contract, Bolivia's Congress has chosen the discipline of international finance over the comfort of subsidized fuel — a wager that borrowed stability can outlast popular anger. The approval of a $1.9 billion IMF loan, backed by centrist and right-wing parties filling the vacuum left by the fallen MAS movement, signals a profound realignment of Bolivian politics and priorities. President Paz inherits both the promise of $5 billion in unlocked financing and the unresolved question that haunts every austerity bargain: whether the pain arrives
Bolivia approves $1.9bn IMF loan as unions warn of austerity backlash
Union-led protests in June-July paralyzed the country; renewed unrest threatened by subsidy cuts affecting struggling families' living costs.