LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian miners set off dynamite sticks and launched fireworks at police on Tuesday, the eighth consecutive day of protests against economic reforms decreed by incoming President Rodrigo Paz.
Police in La Paz, a city located 12,000 feet (3,660 meters) above sea level, used tear gas and rubber bullets to push back hundreds of protesters, who tried to break through barricades set up around a square where the nation’s Congress is located. Police did not report any arrests.
Last week, hundreds of miners from state owned companies arrived in Bolivia’s capital city to demonstrate against the economic reforms of Paz, the centrist president who was elected in October. The reforms include the removal of fuel subsidies that had been around for two decades.
The protesters have not been joined by many trade groups, including transport workers. But they have been joined by teachers unions and some Indigenous groups. That suggests staunch opposition to the new president’s measures among constituencies aligned with the Movement for Socialism, the party that ruled Bolivia for two decades and was voted out of power this year.
“Our protest is not only against the elimination of the (fuel) subsidy, but against this damned decree that will put the country and new generations in debt,” said Mario Argollo, a leader for Bolivia’s Central Workers Union.
Paz, a former city mayor and legislator, improved relations with the United States after taking office in November, by announcing he would accept an ambassador from Washington. The two countries had not exchanged ambassadors in the past 17 years.
In December, the new president signed a decree that slashes fuel subsidies that economist say worsened a severe shortage of U.S. dollar s that had recently hobbled Bolivia’s economy.
Without the subsidies however, the price of gasoline in Bolivia has almost doubled, rising from 53 cents per liter to $1.
Paz also increased the nation’s minimum wage and issued an economic reform that will enable the nation’s central bank to borrow money without the approval of Bolivia’s legislature.
The president campaigned on a platform known as “capitalism for all” and has promised to reduce interest rates and attract foreign investment to the landlocked South American nation.
Miners march to protest President Rodrigo Paz's decision to remove fuel subsidies in La Paz, Bolivia, Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Freddy Barragan)
Miners march to protest President Rodrigo Paz's decision to remove fuel subsidies in La Paz, Bolivia, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Freddy Barragan)
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s parliament on Friday elected Min Aung Hlaing, a general who ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in 2021 and kept an iron grip on power for the past five years, as the country’s new president.
The move marks a nominal return to an elected government but is widely considered as an effort to keep the army in power after an election organized by the military that opponents and independent observers deemed neither free nor fair, and as civil war rages.
Transitioning to an elected government is also seen as a way to improve frosty relations with some Southeast Asian neighbors following the military takeover. China and Russia have supported the military administration, while Western powers imposed sanctions.
Min Aung Hlaing was one of three nominees for the president’s post, but was virtually guaranteed the job as lawmakers from military-backed parties and appointed members from the army hold a commanding majority in parliament.
The vote was held in the newly renovated parliament building in the capital, Naypyitaw, which was damaged in last year’s earthquake.
Aung Lin Dwe, speaker of parliament’s combined upper and lower house, announced that Min Aung Hlaing won 429 out of the 584 votes.
The two runners-up become vice presidents. Nyo Saw, a former general, had served as an adviser to Min Aung Hlaing, and Nan Ni Ni Aye, an ethnic Karen politician from the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, will be the country’s first female vice president. All three are expected to be inaugurated next week.
Min Aung Hlaing, who holds the rank of senior general, earlier this week relinquished his post of commander-in-chief because the constitution prohibits the president from simultaneously holding the top military position. A close aide, Gen. Ye Win Oo, took over the powerful job.
Meanwhile, much of the country remains enmeshed in a bloody civil war.
Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the National Unity Government — Myanmar’s main opposition organization, which views itself as the country’s legitimate government — charged that Min Aung Hlaing is responsible for numerous war crimes, and his easy assumption of the presidency proved that the political change some countries had hoped for will not materialize.
“Myanmar people do not accept it. The revolution will continue with great momentum,” he told The Associated Press..
The 69-year-old Min Aung Hlaing had been the military chief since 2011. Under the military-imposed constitution, he held significant powers even before overthrowing Suu Kyi’s government.
Parliament members were elected in three phases in December and January. Major opposition parties, including Suu Kyi’s former ruling National League for Democracy, were either blocked from running or refused to compete under conditions they deemed unfair. Suu Kyi, 80, is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as politically motivated.
Myanmar was under military rule from 1962 to 2016, when Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide election victory. It won an even greater mandate in the 2020 polls, but the army staged a takeover in 2021 before the new parliament could convene.
Peaceful protests against military rule were then put down with deadly force, pushing pro-democracy activists to turn to armed resistance and ally themselves with ethnic minority groups who have been battling for greater autonomy for decades.
Security concerns meant voting in the recent election could be held in only 263 of the country’s 330 townships.
Nearly 8,000 activists and civilians have been killed since the 2021 army takeover, and some 22,872 political detainees are imprisoned, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent group that tracks rights violations.
The military’s major reliance on airstrikes — 1,140 strikes in 2025 alone, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project — accounts for hundreds of civilian casualties.
“If Min Aung Hlaing thinks that an official civilian title will shield him from prosecution for the many grave violations of international law that he is accused of overseeing as head of the military, that is not how international justice works," Amnesty International Myanmar researcher Joe Freeman said in statement.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2024 began an investigation into charges of crimes against humanity after the chief prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing over the military’s brutal persecution of the Rohingya minority.
At long-awaited hearings at the International Court of Justice in January this year, Myanmar defended itself against accusations that it was responsible for genocide against the Rohingya. The West African country of Gambia first filed the case in 2019.
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe, center, arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
FILE - Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of Myanmar's military council, inspects officers during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 78th Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
Myanmar's military representatives and lawmakers arrive to attend a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026.(AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Myanmar's military representatives arrive for a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Myanmar's military representatives arrive for a session at Union parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
Parliament chairman Aung Lin Dwe, center, arrives for a session of Union Parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)
