Alleged attack against Evo Morales further complicates the political and economic situation in Bolivia

The Bolivian government on Monday denied accusations of having attacked former President Evo Morales, whose cars were shot at on Sunday, and maintained that the former leader’s motorcade had fired at a special anti-drug police force that was on patrol.

Morales claims the government tried to assassinate him when his car was shot at early Sunday, amid political tensions in the Andean country between him and his former socialist ally, President Luis Arce.

Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo said at a news conference that the Special Anti-Narcotics Force (ELCN) was doing regular highway patrol when Morales’ motorcade fired at police and ran over an officer.

Morales had said in a radio interview on Sunday that he shot at police after they opened fire.

Morales’ vehicles were suspected of transporting drugs, according to the government.

Morales, for his part, described accusations that authorities were carrying out an anti-drug operation as false.

“If that had been the case, why did his elite military and police team shoot more than 18 times at the vehicles where I was traveling,” he wrote in X.

Del Castillo added that Morales had ordered his vehicles to be burned after the incident, destroying any evidence before it was obtained.

“If he had really suffered an attack, it would be convenient for him that these vehicles be completely intact (…) to see what evidence we could collect,” said Del Castillo.

The police have not managed to clear all the roadblocks carried out by Morales supporters, which have caused shortages of food and fuel in the cities.

The protest was called by Morales supporters to prevent his arrest in a court case of alleged abuse of a minor when he was president in 2016.

After the attack on the politician on Sunday, his supporters threatened to radicalize the protests and kept a small airport in the Chapare region, the former president’s stronghold and refuge, occupied.

President Arce said that the case will be investigated, while speculation grows about whether it was a failed operation to arrest Morales or a staging to victimize the coca leader, who uploaded videos of the attack to the networks and assured that his car received 14 shots by suspected hooded men when he was on his way to his Sunday radio program in Chapare, in central Bolivia.

Morales’ main advisor, Juan Ramón Quintana, publicly called on the coca growers to reinforce their custody “until conditions come from the international community and they can take the former president to a safe place,” outside the country.

On the other hand, opposition senator Rodrigo Paz told Fides radio station that “the country is adrift in the middle of the fight between Morales and Arce to see who leaves first while you have people trapped on the roads, unrest in the markets due to prices, with a justice system that does not generate credibility and a police force that appears to be doing the minimum.”

The drop in exports in recent years aggravated the shortage of dollars to import fuels and sell them at a subsidized price. Added to the difficulties in supplying fuel were increases in the cost of living amid strong criticism of Arce for his management of the economy.

The disputes between Arce and Morales for control of the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) party ahead of the 2025 presidential elections have complicated the economic situation and have given Morales arguments to question the management of his successor and shore up his return to power. . In turn, Arce has denounced a plot by Morales to force his resignation.

[Con información de AP y Reuters]

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