Dozens of clowns took to the streets of Bolivia\u2019s capital, La Paz, on Monday to protest a new government decree limiting extracurricular school activities, saying the measure threatens their ability to earn a living.<\/p>\n
Wearing colorful costumes, full face paint and their trademark red noses, the entertainers gathered outside the Ministry of Education<\/strong> to oppose the policy introduced in February. The decree requires schools to complete 200 days of lessons each year<\/strong>, effectively eliminating many of the celebrations and special events where clowns are typically hired to entertain children.<\/p>\n \u201cThis decree will economically affect all of us who work with children,\u201d said Wilder Ram\u00edrez<\/strong>, a leader of the local clown union who performs under the stage name Zapallito<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Ram\u00edrez told reporters that laughter is an important part of childhood and questioned whether the country\u2019s education authorities understood the value of such experiences.<\/p>\n Clowns in Bolivia often perform at school festivities and celebrations<\/strong>, providing entertainment during breaks from regular lessons. These events are a major source of income for performers, particularly during national celebrations like Children\u2019s Day on April 12<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Under the new rules introduced by the government of President Rodrigo Paz<\/strong>, schools are no longer allowed to host such celebrations during regular school days. Authorities say events may still take place voluntarily on weekends<\/strong>, but performers argue this will significantly reduce the number of bookings available.<\/p>\n Education officials said they will consider the entertainers\u2019 concerns when drafting policies for the 2027 school year<\/strong>, but that reassurance did little to calm protesters.<\/p>\n \u201cThis decree will diminish our income, and with the economic crisis the country is going through, our future looks increasingly gloomy,\u201d said El\u00edas Guti\u00e9rrez<\/strong>, spokesperson for the Confederation of Artisanal Workers of Bolivia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The demonstration also drew tailors, photographers and costume makers<\/strong> who depend on school events for work. Together with the clowns, they marched through central La Paz, blowing whistles and setting off small fireworks to draw attention to their cause.<\/p>\n Bolivia is currently facing its worst economic crisis in decades<\/strong>, driven in part by declining natural gas production, which has sharply reduced government revenues. The shortage of U.S. dollars has also made imports more expensive in the landlocked country.<\/p>\n As the crowd moved through the streets, one protester carried a sign accusing the government of \u201ctaking away smiles, and taking work away.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dozens of clowns took to the streets of Bolivia\u2019s capital, La Paz, on Monday to protest a new government decree limiting extracurricular school activities, saying the measure threatens their ability to earn a living. Wearing colorful costumes, full face paint and their trademark red noses, the entertainers gathered outside the Ministry of Education to oppose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":15743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[3672,17850,17843,17847,17844,17848,17845,17852,17851,17849,17846],"class_list":["post-15741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amat","tag-bolivia-artisanal-workers-protest-decree","tag-bolivia-clown-protest-la-paz","tag-bolivia-economic-crisis-entertainers-protest","tag-bolivia-school-extracurricular-ban-decree","tag-childrens-day-bolivia-school-celebrations-ban","tag-clowns-protest-education-policy-bolivia","tag-cultural-performers-bolivia-livelihood-crisis","tag-education-reform-bolivia-200-school-days-rule","tag-la-paz-street-protest-clowns-union","tag-rodrigo-paz-government-school-rule-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Impact on school celebrations<\/h3>\n
Wider economic pressures<\/h3>\n