Former President Evo Morales from Bolivia claimed he survived an assassination attempt on Sunday after unknown men opened fire on his car. He was not injured and there was no immediate confirmation of the attack by authorities.
Morales claimed the shots were fired as he drove through Bolivia’s coca leaf region of Chapare, the ex-president’s rural stronghold whose residents have blocked the country’s main east-west highway for the past two weeks.
The roadblocks – protesting what Morales’ supporters decry as President Luis Arce’s attempts to sabotage his former mentor and bitter political rival – have isolated cities and disrupted food and fuel supplies.
Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, emerged unscathed from Sunday’s alleged attack and appeared in his usual calm manner on his weekly radio show to talk about what happened.
He told the radio host that as he left home for the radio station, hooded men fired at least fourteen shots at his car, wounding his driver.
Morales was quick to blame his successor, President Arce, with whom he is vying to be the ruling Socialist Party’s candidate in next year’s presidential elections. He claimed that Arce’s government resorted to physical violence because it could not defeat him politically.
Juan Karita / AP
“Arce will go down in history as the worst president in history,” Morales said. “Shooting a former president is the last straw.”
Officials in Arce’s government did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.
Cellphone video circulating online shows Morales’ driver bleeding from the back of his head. Morales can be seen in the passenger seat, holding a phone to his ear as the vehicle swerves and a woman’s voice shouts, “Duck!” shouts.
The footage shows the car’s windshield cracked by at least three bullets and the rear window shattered. Morales is heard saying, “Papacho was shot in the head,” apparently referring to his driver.
“They are shooting at us,” Morales continues on the phone. “They shot the tire of the car and it stopped on the road.”
Morales’ claim heightens political tensions in Bolivia at a volatile time for the cash-strapped Andean country of 12 million.
In June, there was an apparent coup attempt by a rogue military general who led an uprising, in which armored vehicles and troops marched to the presidential palace and attempted to enter the building. The rebellion retreated after Arce confronted the general, spiking the alleged coup attempt, and ordered him to step down. The general and other senior officers were later arrested.
Then last month, Morales led a massive march against the government’s mismanagement of the economy, which quickly turned into street fighting with pro-government gangs. Imported goods are scarce and prices are rising. Drivers wait for hours to refuel at gas stations. The gap between official exchange rates and black market exchange rates is widening.
Earlier this month, the feud between Morales and Arce went to court as Bolivian prosecutors launched an investigation into allegations that Morales fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2016, classifying their relationship as statutory rape.
Morales has dismissed the charges as politically motivated and refused to testify in the case. Since reports emerged of a possible arrest warrant for him, the ex-president has holed up in the Chapare region of central Bolivia, where supportive coca farmers have stood vigilantly to protect him from arrest.
President Arce accuses Morales of trying to undermine his government to further his own ambitions.
