Former Bolivian President Evo Morales says his car was fired upon in apparent assassination attempt

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales said Sunday he was travelling in a car that was shot at in an apparent assassination attempt.

To illustrate the act of violence, the 64-year old former president posted a video of his automobile on social media. The video depicted at least two bullet holes in the windshield of a car that protected the front car seat Morales occupied.

A pro-Morales faction of the Movement for Socialism (Mas) party released a statement to the press, saying two unidentified men shrouded in black unleashed gunfire on the car while passing by a Bolivian military station. The former left wing president said that his driver was injured, and that one of the bullets fired missed him by only a few “centimeters.”

As a result of the shooting, the Movement for Socialism party accused the government of President Luis Arce, alleging the act was an assassination attempt to eliminate the chief executive’s competitor.

Arce has denied those charges and has since vowed to hunt down the would be killers as part of a criminal investigation. He also condemned political violence.

The political situation between Arce and Morales is complicated since both men are members of the Mas party, which essentially rules Bolivia. While they both belong to the same political party, their relationship has deteriorated since they both declared their presidential candidacy in the upcoming 2025 presidential election.

Morales has already dismissed Arce’s comments, and instead suggested the gunfire on his automobile was part of government sponsored “joint operation between military and police forces.”

The purported assassination attempt took place near Villa Tunari, in the heart of central Bolivia by the Bolivian Army’s Ninth Division base, Morales said.

According to Morales’ Mas faction, the would be assassins escaped in a military helicopter after the shooting incident.

“This is not an isolated event, it is clear evidence that we are facing a fascist government,” the Morales camp’s statement said.

Morales served as Bolivia’s head of state from 2006 to 2019.

Upon his departure from power in 2020, the Bolivian Ministry of Justice and Institutional Transparency filed criminal charges against the  former president for human trafficking and statutory rape. Bolivian prosecutors threatened to issue an arrest warrant for the former president after he failed to appear for a court hearing earlier this month.

Morales has denied both charges and professed his innocence. Those investigations are only one element raising political tensions in Bolivia.

Morales supporters have alleged the charges are just one part of an ongoing effort orchestrated by Arce to keep Morales out of office. To demonstrate their loyalty to the ex-president, many Morales supporters have confronted police during protests and even blocked various roads around the South American country.

The charges against Morales continued to divide the country along many political party lines.

Prosecutors allege that in 2015 Morales engaged in sexual relations with an underage girl, giving rise to a charge of statutory rape. 

As part of the government’s complaint against the embattled president, they allege Morales took the underage girl on international trips, which they argue constitutes human trafficking.

Morales has blasted the government, saying that the accusations are part of a right-wing conspiracy against him by the interim administration that replaced him after he was pressured to step down in 2019 as a result of vote-rigging charges and accusations of sedition and terrorism.

An arrest warrant was issued for Morales in 2020, but it was annulled after his attorneys convinced the Bolivian courts that prosecutors violated due process.

Charges were refiled earlier this year, and on Oct. 3 ADN America reported that Bolivian prosecutor Sandra Gutiérrez was claiming she was fired as a result of reopening the investigation against the former president.

Morales returned to Bolivia in November 2020, one day after Arce was sworn in as president. Despite the two being part of the same political party, they have since become sworn enemies—a rivalry that has only grown deeper since they both declared their candidacy for the 2025 presidential elections.