Bolivia's former president alleges that his driver was shot in an assassination attempt VIDEO

Former Bolivian president Evo Morales says he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when unidentified gunmen fired on his vehicle, News.Az reports

He was not injured and there was no immediate confirmation of the attack from authorities.

Mr Morales alleged the shots were fired while he was being driven in Bolivia’s coca leaf-growing region of Chapare, the ex-president’s rural stronghold whose residents have blockaded the country’s main east-west road for the past two weeks.

The roadblocks – protesting against what Mr Morales’s supporters decry as President Luis Arce’s attempts to sabotage his former mentor and bitter political rival – have isolated cities and disrupted food and fuel supplies.

Mr Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 until 2019, emerged unscathed from the alleged attack on Sunday, appearing on his weekly radio show in his usual calm manner to recount what happened.

He told the radio host that as he was leaving home for the radio station, hooded men fired at least 14 shots at his car, injuring his driver.

Mr Morales was quick to blame his successor Mr Arce, with whom he is fighting to be the candidate of the governing socialist party in next year’s presidential election.

Arce is going to go down as the worst president in history. Shooting a former president is the last straw
He claimed Mr Arce’s government resorted to physical force having been unable to defeat him politically.

“Arce is going to go down as the worst president in history,” Mr Morales said. “Shooting a former president is the last straw.”

Officials in Mr Arce’s government did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.

The former president of #Bolivia posted a video on #Facebook taken from a moving car, where he is sitting in the front #passenger seat and at least two bullet holes are visible in the windshield. pic.twitter.com/gCwGHmUvr6

— News.Az (@news_az) October 27, 2024

News.Az