The president of BoliviaLuis Arce, denounced this Friday that “armed groups” linked to the former head of state Evo Morales (2006-2019) took three military units in the tropics of Cochabamba, the union and political stronghold of the leader of the ruling party in the center of the country, and described this act as a “betrayal of the country”. “We denounce before the Bolivian people and the international community that armed groups linked to Evo Morales stormed three military units in the tropical zone of Cochabamba, taking military personnel and their families hostage and threatening their lives,” wrote Arce on social media. .
The president said that the capture of a military installation “by irregular groups anywhere in the world is a crime of treason against the Fatherland” and an “affront” to the Constitution, the armed forces and “the Bolivian people themselves , which rejects Evo”. Morales’ criminal blocks, as well as these criminal actions, with force.
Arce deplored the retention of soldiers in these regiments, because they do not intervene “in any operation” and are content to protect their units. “They (the detained agents) are of popular origin, and many also have original indigenous roots, like the police officers at whom these irregular groups shoot with deadly weapons and throw dynamites,” he explained.
That day, a military and police operation was carried out in the central region of Cochabamba to remove the roadblocks that the supporters of Evo Morales, former communist president accused of sexual abuse of minors. The sectors linked to Evo Morales are carrying out this pressure measure to drop the legal proceedings against him for trafficking and rape, to demand a solution to the economic situation in the country and to defend the presidential candidacy of the official leader in the elections. 2025.
Arce also denounced that the occupation of military units includes the taking of the spaces “where the military weapons are located in these units, which constitutes an absolutely reprehensible criminal act and far from any legitimate social demands of the original indigenous peasant movement.” “.
“These actions economically suffocate the Bolivian people (…) seeking to disrupt the legally constituted public order and our democracy, with the sole objective of shortening our mandate, imposing an unconstitutional candidacy and obtaining impunity in the legal processes,” he said.
He added that, “as a democratically elected government”, it will continue to act to “restore public order, safeguard the lives of Bolivians, social peace, as well as the people’s right to free movement, to work, access to fuel, food and medicine.
Hours earlier, Morales told Arce in an open letter that “no one would have imagined that the final months of his administration would be so dark and regrettable”, and compared him to former interim president Jeanine Áñez ( 2019-2020) for the use of violence against him, and whom he accuses of having carried out a “coup d’état” in 2019. And he warned Arce that if they unblocked the roads, he would be “responsible for hurt and divide Bolivia.”
Arce and Morales have been separated since 2021 due to differences in the state administration that deepened due to the need to renew the government’s national directive Movement towards Socialism (MAS) and elect the official candidate for the 2025 elections.
