La Paz, 04/01/26 – “Senza fine” (“without an end”) is one of the most iconic songs by the recently deceased Genoese singer-songwriter Gino Paoli, and it aptly describes the fuel crisis that has been affecting Bolivia for the past couple of years and has become unmanageable in recent months.
Newsletter #12 (March 5) has already analyzed the issue of destabilized gasoline and the malfunctions of varying severity caused in more than ten thousand vehicles across the country, without the exact causes of the problem being clearly established to this day.
Although Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) has assumed responsibility for the damage, activated insurance to compensate affected vehicles, and applied cleaning additives to the gasoline, the state oil company has been slow to acknowledge that the root of the problem lies in the import of low-quality gasoline and perhaps even internal sabotage within the company.
The lack of technical transparency makes it impossible to determine whether engine malfunctions will cease in the short term. Experts point out that as long as structural causes are not eliminated—not least YPFB’s marketing monopoly—the risk to the vehicle fleet and user distrust will persist.
Moreover, YPFB has set deadlines for submitting claims from those affected, a measure considered restrictive given that the number of impacted vehicles continues to rise.
As expected, tensions have escalated, and in response, urban transport unions have strongly protested the poor quality of gasoline as well as the slowness and restrictions of the compensation system, which results in a high rejection rate.
A visible effect of this crisis has been the replacement of YPFB’s president: Youssef Akly has been succeeded by Claudia Cronenbold, linked to Petrobras and the Hydrocarbons Chamber. Meanwhile, the company’s challenges remain and are likely to worsen.
Adding to the internal crisis is an increasingly adverse external environment. With the price of a barrel of oil hovering around USD 100 due to the conflict in Iran, fuel subsidies have once again begun to drain the already fragile public coffers. The government now faces a historic dilemma: reinstate the subsidy, recently removed, or confront the political and social cost of cascading price increases.
While the official discourse focuses on an “energy diversification” that many consider insufficient, sector analysts warn that the solution lies in a planned commitment to renewable energy in electricity generation.
Unlike oil, “renewable electrons” offer energy sovereignty and do not depend on geopolitical conflicts occurring thousands of kilometers away to supply the national economy.
Best regards, health, and Happy Easter,
Francesco