An assassination attempt?

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The picture shows bullet holes in the windshield of the pickup truck in which ex-President Evo Morales was traveling.(Bild: AFP/Radio Kawsachun Coca)

The former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has said that he survived an assassination attempt. "Agents of the state made an attempt on my life today", the indigenous former president (2006 to 2019) wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.

A video published by his daughter (see tweet below) allegedly shows Evo Morales' car being shot at. The former head of state was on his way to a radio show in the department of Cochabamba in the center of Bolivia when his convoy of vehicles was attacked by heavily armed men dressed all in black, his left-wing party MAS (Movimento al Socialismo) announced.

Witnesses: perpetrators fled to military base
One of the vehicles was hit by 14 shots, another by at least four shots. The driver was shot in the arm and grazed in the head. According to witnesses, the perpetrators fled to a nearby military base after the attack. The MAS blamed incumbent President Luis Arce for the attack.

"All violence in politics must be condemned and investigated. Problems are neither solved by deaths nor by tendentious speculation," wrote head of state Arce on X. "Following the denunciation of an alleged assassination attempt on former President Evo Morales, I have ordered an immediate and thorough investigation."

The deputy minister for public security, Roberto Ríos, suggested that the alleged assassination attempt could also be a staging by the Morales camp.

Conflict between former party colleagues
Ahead of next year's presidential election, the conflict between former party colleagues Morales and Arce continues to escalate. Morales wants to run again in the election, although the Constitutional Court has banned him from running again.

His supporters have been protesting for days, blocking numerous roads in the South American country.