Former president Evo Morales claims to have been targeted on Sunday by around fifteen shots fired at his vehicle which injured his driver, denouncing an assassination attempt by “agents of the Bolivian state”. “I denounce urgently” before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “that elite agents of the Bolivian state attempted to assassinate me today”declared the former president (2006-2019) on the social network X.
Earlier, he announced that the car he was in had received 14 bullet holes while he was on his way to his weekly show on Kawsachun Coca radio, in Cochabamba, his stronghold in the center of the country. “Fortunately, today we are alive (…). It was hooded men who fired (…). It was planned, it was to kill Evo.he declared on the radio.
President Luis Arce “destroyed Bolivia and now he wants to eliminate our movement by ending Evo’s life. We will see how we will prepare (…). A state of siege is underway”added the former president.
Luis Arce, Mr. Morales' former economy minister, condemned the attack on “an immediate and thorough investigation to clarify the incident”. The vice minister in charge of Security, Roberto Ríos, said that the authorities are also considering the possibility that it is a “self-attack”.
«Take over the airports
In a video broadcast by the radio, three holes can be seen in the windshield of a van in which Mr. Morales is in the passenger seat. The driver has blood on his head and a woman tells him to “hurry”. “We also have images according to which, after what happened, a helicopter from Chimoré airport (in Cochabamba) takes six people (…) We do not know if they are soldiers or of police officers but the only thing they really want is to assassinate Evo Morales”Anyelo Céspedes, a lawmaker close to Mr. Morales, told AFP.
The governments of Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and Honduras expressed solidarity with the former Bolivian president.
The attack comes a day after President Arce reshuffled the country's military leadership, as Morales supporters blocked Bolivia's main roads to protest a judicial investigation into him. During this reshuffle, the Head of State asked the new military leaders to “preserve the highest interests of the country, such as state security and the restoration of public order”.
According to a press release from the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), the party founded by the former president, the events occurred at the entrance to a military barracks in Cochabamba, where individuals with “with long arms and dressed entirely in black” fired on the vehicles in Mr. Morales's motorcade.
“Luis Arce, you crossed the red line. We are calling for mobilization. If it is possible, we will take over the airports”declared at a press conference Vicente Choque, the leader of the CSUTCB union, who had been one of the leaders of the protest actions in January against the court decision disqualifying Evo Morales from the presidential election of August 2025.
Evo Morales still wants to run and is trying, with the support of a wing of his party, to do so in court.
“Judicial persecution”
Evo Morales is the target of an investigation for “rape, smuggling and trafficking in human beings”due to a relationship he allegedly had with a 15-year-old girl, with whom he had a daughter in 2016. His lawyers claim that the case was already examined and closed in 2020.
The former leader says he is the victim of “judicial persecution” orchestrated by the government of Luis Arce, his rival for the candidacy of the ruling party in the next presidential election.
Supporters of the first indigenous person to rule Bolivia have been blocking main roads since October 14. Clashes with the police left 14 police officers injured and 44 civilians arrested, according to the government. In total, more than 20 blockades have been reported, most of them in the state of Cochabamba. According to the authorities, more than 1,700 police officers and 113 vehicles were deployed on Friday to unblock the roads.