At least 200 Bolivian soldiers were held hostage on Saturday by supporters of former President Evo Morales, after the assault on three barracks as part of anti-government demonstrations which began twenty days ago, the ministry said of Foreign Affairs.
Friday, “three military units were attacked by irregular groups in the Chapare area, in the department of Cochabamba, taking more than two hundred soldiers hostage”the ministry said in a statement. They also “seized with weapons of war and ammunition”added the ministry.
Initially, it was officially reported that demonstrators had occupied a regiment's barracks on Friday in Cochabamba. In the same region, the Bolivian government sent the army to help police clear roads blocked by supporters of Evo Morales. The ex-president is the subject of a criminal investigation for a rape case which he denies and which his supporters denounce as part of a “judicial and political persecution” from the government of Luis Arce, former minister and ally of Evo Morales.
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