The Bolivian government announced, on Monday (7), the militarization of borders with neighboring countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Peru to combat the soaring food prices in the country’s domestic market.
According to Luis Arce’s government, products such as tomatoes, sugar, rice, potatoes, meat and oil are being smuggled to neighboring countries and sold at higher prices than on the Bolivian domestic market.
“We instruct our armed forces to militarize the borders, that we do not let [os produtos bolivianos] leave”, said the Bolivian president, adding: “We have to toughen up as Bolivians because, currently, thanks to our food production, our neighboring countries are taking advantage and living off this low production cost”.
According to Arce, the reinforcement of the borders seeks to prevent national agricultural production, subsidized through diesel subsidies, which alleviates planting, harvesting and transportation costs, from being illegally removed from the country, affecting its costs on the domestic market.
The Bolivian government claims to have already seized, since last week, 140 tons of rice that were being taken to Brazil.
“Our worker’s pocket pays this low price for meat, chicken, eggs, rice, pasta, oil, but in neighboring countries that have higher levels of entry, they can pay more and are doing so,” he said. the Bolivian president, concluding that the phenomenon “generates problems”.
Bolivian inflation jumped from 0.08% monthly in January to 0.88% in September.
In a press conference this Tuesday (9), the Minister of Development Planning of Bolivia, Sergio Cusicanqui, said that the index is increasing due to extreme weather phenomena, such as drought and fires that have devastated millions of hectares, but also due to “imported inflation”.
According to him, international inflation causes products to be imported at higher prices, but also causes a phenomenon that he describes as “reverse smuggling”, with Bolivian products being removed from the country and generating speculation.
“On a permanent, regular basis, we see that prices within Bolivia for products such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes and sugar are lower than the prices of these same products in other countries,” he said, showing a comparative table with product prices in his country and in Argentina, Brazil and Peru.
The measures taken by the government, in addition to the recently announced militarization, according to him, were to eliminate taxes on products such as wheat flour, raw materials for medicines, agrochemicals and agricultural machinery, to cushion the inflationary effects.
The Bolivian government is also carrying out controls on markets and supply centers to “reduce the risk of speculation” with products, and holding peasant fairs to sell food from producers directly to the population.
In recent days, butchers in Santa Cruz have closed their doors against the rise in the price of meat. The Arce government managed to put an end to the strike after meeting with workers, traders and meat exporters and committing to implement measures against smuggling, among other measures.
This content was originally published in Bolivia militarizes border with Brazil against food inflation on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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