Former Bolivian President Faces Uncertainty Amid Alleged Assassination Attempt

October 30, 2024 TruthUSA

The current administration of President Luis Arce denies any involvement while Evo Morales said the gunfire attack was meant to take his life.

News Analysis

Shots were fired at a vehicle transporting former Bolivian President Evo Morales while traveling in Cochabamba department on Oct. 27. The event triggered fierce accusations between the former head of state and the administration of current President Luis Arce.

In a video, Morales can be seen ducking down in the passenger seat of a car while a woman is shouting, and holes are visible in the car’s windshield.

Morales and his supporters say the gunfire was an assassination attempt on the part of Arce’s government. The attack occurred against the backdrop of increased political tensions in recent months, economic turmoil, and a criminal indictment against Morales over the alleged rape of an underage girl.

Arce’s administration has denied any involvement in a plot against Morales. On Monday, Defense Minister Edmundo Novillo officially denounced Morales’ claims of an assassination attempt.

“I want to clarify and deny that both the Armed Forces and the [Bolivian] Police, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Government and the President had planned to kill former President Evo, something that is totally and absolutely false. We categorically deny it,” Novillo told local reporters.

Bolivia’s Minister of the Government, Eduardo del Castillo, shared a video interview in which Morales admitted to firing on a car that approached his vehicle during the disputed Oct. 27 incident, which took place in the narco-trafficking region of Cochabamba called Chapare.

In the video, Morales admits to shooting first at the wheel of a suspicious car and then trying to escape pursuit. It was during the subsequent chase that the narco-trafficking enforcement unit known as FELCN caught up to Morales and returned fire, according to Castillo.

“I shot at the car wheels that were there, then we escaped,” Morales said in the video interview with Gigavision.

Morales quickly backtracked after the video aired, saying his words were misinterpreted and claimed having a poor understanding of the Spanish language. On social media threads, many Bolivians pointed out that Morales only speaks Spanish and doesn’t speak any indigenous language. This was a point of contention with the opposition during his presidency, which lasted until 2019, since Morales ran on a platform of representing the Andean indigenous people.

During a Monday press conference, Castillo fired back at the accusations against Arce’s government. “Mr. Morales, nobody believes the theater you have staged,” he said.

Opposing Forces

An increasingly hostile political rivalry has developed between Morales and Arce, who represent the Movement for Socialism party (MAS). The conflict has been worsened in recent months by ongoing fuel shortages, inflation, and depleted foreign currency reserves. The formal accusations against Morales further complicated this, igniting his supporters to establish roadblocks throughout the country in protest. Demonstrators who support Morales are demanding the underage rape charges be dropped along with economic improvements like lower inflation.

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