Bolivian President Luis Arce said that “armed groups” linked to former President Evo Morales (2006-2019) took three military units in the tropics of Cochabamba, the union and political stronghold of the also official leader of the center. of the country. He called this act a “betrayal of the country”.
“We denounce to the Bolivian people and the international community that armed groups linked to Evo Morales stormed three military units in the tropical region of Cochabamba, taking military personnel and their families hostage and threatening their lives,” wrote Arce on the social network. “the right of people to free movement, to work, to access to fuel, food and medicine. »
Former president Evo Morales is holed up in Chapare, a region which is his political and trade union stronghold, while his supporters, known as “evistas”, have been blocking the roads in the center of the country for 19 days, in order to defend against a possible order to capture against him. Bolivian prosecutors accuse Morales of having committed the crimes of human trafficking and statutory rape (rape of a person over 14 and under 18). with a minor with whom he had a child. The former president sent a letter to Luis Arce this Friday to tell him that if he gives the order to intervene in the blockades with the police and the army, he will bear “the responsibility for hurting and dividing Bolivia “.
Arce maintains that the capture of a military installation “by irregular groups anywhere in the world constitutes a crime of treason against the Fatherland” and an “affront” to the Constitution, the armed forces and “the Bolivian people themselves, who rejects crime the blockades of Evo Morales, as well as these criminal actions, are energetic.
Letter from Morales to Arce
Morales said in the letter to Arce that “no one would have imagined that the last months of his administration would be so dark and regrettable”, and compared him to Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020) for the use of violence against him and for the 2019 coup. “His name will go down in history with that of Áñez, as one of the presidents who impoverished the people, weakened the State and turned arms against his own people,” he declared.
At the end of the letter, Morales also accuses the president of knowing “who gave the order to shoot him”, during an armed attack that the former president reported on Sunday, during which his driver was injured and his truck was shot 14 times. .
The “obvious” blockages on the roads of central Bolivia have affected the main cities of the Andean country, as fuel does not reach distributors and for two weeks there have been long queues of up to a kilometer of drivers waiting to fill up with gas or fuel. diesel. Likewise, several products in the basic basket do not arrive in the cities, even if the government has carried out airlifts to distribute food to the markets, citizens denounce the lack or increase in prices of products such as chicken and basic grains.
Meanwhile, in the Chapare region, the police ordered the withdrawal of all its agents, due to the violence of the “Evista” sectors, who entered a military installation to extract several trucks and set them on fire, claiming that these were the vehicles used. by the “hit men” who tried to kill Morales.
The crisis in Bolivia comes amid a struggle between Arce and Morales for control of the MAS and administration of the Executive Branch. Both have been separated since the end of 2021, which has caused a strong division within the ruling party.
