Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales claims he survived assassination attempt

Morales says he was targeted while being driven in Bolivia’s coca leaf-growing region of Chapare

Former Bolivian president Evo Morales claimed he survived an assassination attempt on Sunday after unidentified men opened fire on his car.

Mr Morales said he escaped unhurt but 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 highway for the past two weeks.

The roadblocks — protesting what Mr Morales' 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 2006-2019, emerged unscathed from the alleged attack 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, wounding his driver.

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

A video circulating online shows Mr Morales' driver bleeding from the back of his head. Mr Morales can be seen in the passenger's seat holding a phone to his ear as the vehicle swerves and a woman's voice shrieks “Duck!”

The footage shows the car’s front windshield cracked by at least three bullets and its rear windshield shattered. Morales can be heard saying, “Papacho has been shot in the head," apparently referring to his driver.

“They are shooting at us,” Mr Morales continues on the phone. “They shot the tire of the car and it stopped on the road."

Morales' claim deepens political tensions in Bolivia at a volatile moment for the cash-strapped Andean nation of 12 million.

In June there was an alleged attempted coup by a rogue general. Last month Morales led a massive march against the government's mismanagement of the economy that quickly devolved into street clashes with pro-government mobs. Imported goods are scarce and prices are rising. Drivers wait for hours to fill up at gas stations. The gap between the official and black-market exchange rates is widening.

Earlier this month, the feud between Mr Morales and Mr Arce moved to the courts as Bolivian prosecutors launched an investigation into accusations that Mr Morales fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2016, classifying their relationship as statutory rape.

Mr Morales has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and refused to testify in the case. Since reports surfaced of a possible arrest warrant against him, the ex-president has been holed up in the Chapare region, in central Bolivia, where supportive coca growers have kept vigilant watch to protect him from arrest.

President Arce accuses Mr Morales of trying to undermine his administration to advance his own ambitions.

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina