Former President Evo Morales claimed this Sunday, October 27, to have been the target of fifteen shots, fired at his vehicle and wounding his driver, denouncing an attempted murder by “agents of the Bolivian State.”
“I urgently denounce” before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “that elite agents of the Bolivian State tried to assassinate me today,” declared the former president (2006-2019) on the social network X.
“The car in which I arrived received 14 shots. That surprised me. Fortunately today we are alive (…). Those who shot were hooded (…) “It was planned, it was to kill Evo,” he previously said in an interview with the Kawsachun Coca radio station, in Cochabamba, his stronghold.
The attack occurred when he was on his way to the radio station in this town in central Bolivia, he said.
“A state of siege is underway”
President Luis Arce “destroyed Bolivia and now wants to eliminate our movement by putting an end to Evo’s life. We will see how we prepare (…). A state of siege is underway,” he also said.
In a video broadcast on the radio you can see three holes in the windshield of a truck where Evo Morales is sitting in the passenger seat, presumably due to the gunshots. The driver has blood on his head and a woman asks him to “hurry up.”
“We also have images according to which, after what happened, a helicopter from the Chimoré airport (in Cochabamba) takes six people (…). We do not know if they are military or police but the only thing they really want is to kill Evo Morales,” Anyelo Céspedes, a deputy close to Evo Morales, told AFP.
“Yesterday there was a change of high military command and today they are trying to kill Evo Morales,” he added, referring to President Arce’s appointment of a new military command of the army on Saturday.
A “self-attack”?
The head of state announced this reorganization on the night of Saturday to Sunday, asking the new military leaders to “preserve the highest interests of the country, such as state security and the restoration of public order.”
The Deputy Minister in charge of Security, Roberto Ríos, said that the authorities will investigate the report of the armed attack, although they are also considering the possibility that it was a “self-attack.”
According to a press release from the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), a party founded by the former president, the events occurred at the entrance to a military barracks in Cochabamba, where individuals armed with “long weapons and dressed completely in black” fired at the vehicles that were They were part of Evo Morales’ entourage.
“Luis Arce, you have crossed the red line. We call for mobilization. If possible, we will take the airports,” said Vicente Choque, leader of the CSUTCB union, who had been one of the leaders of the protest actions in January against the judicial decision that disqualifies Evo Morales for the presidential elections of August 2025.
Evo Morales still wants to run and is trying, with the support of a wing of his party, to do so in court.
Morales is the subject of investigation for “rape, trafficking and trafficking in human beings”
Evo Morales is the subject of an investigation for “rape, trafficking and trafficking in human beings” due to a relationship he allegedly had with a 15-year-old girl, with whom he had a daughter in 2016. His lawyers affirm that the case has already been investigated and closed in 2020. The prosecutor’s office announced a few weeks ago that it would issue an arrest warrant against him, but he has not made any statement since then.
Evo Morales believes himself to be the victim of a “judicial persecution” orchestrated by the government of Luis Arce, his former ally and now rival for the ruling party’s candidacy in the next presidential elections.
Supporters of the first indigenous person to rule Bolivia have been blocking main roads since October 14. Since that date, clashes between supporters of Evo Morales and the police have left 14 police officers injured and 44 civilians detained, according to the government.
In total, more than twenty blockades have been reported, the majority in the state of Cochabamba. According to authorities, more than 1,700 police officers and 113 vehicles were deployed on Friday to unblock the roads.
Source: BFM TV
