LatinNews Daily - 06 February 2026

*Bolivia’s state hydrocarbon company, Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), has sought to downplay concerns about the quality of fuel being distributed, amid protests by transport workers in three cities. Roads were reportedly blocked by protesters yesterday in the cities of La Paz, Santa Cruz, and Oruro (the capitals of the eponymous departments), amid concerns that vehicles are being damaged by low-quality fuel. YPFB’s president, Yussef Akly, said that “the effects of this situation of destabilised gasoline – that is to say, which includes elements of rubber and manganese – have been seen in very specific places… this is not happening at the national level”. He said that contaminated fuel has been identified in three cities – Oruro, Montero (Santa Cruz), and Trinidad (Beni). He said that an estimated 2,000 vehicles may have been damaged, out of around 3m which are registered in the country. One of the priorities of President Rodrigo Paz’s government after taking office in November was to relax rules around the import and sale of fuel, in order to address severe fuel shortages that hammered the economy under Paz’s predecessor Luis Arce (2020-2025).

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