The Government of Bolivia revealed that Evo Morales’ delegation fired first at the Police – Diario La Página –

The Minister of Government (Security) of Bolivia, Eduardo Del Castillo, reported that members of the Bolivian Police were attacked this Sunday by the security team of former President Evo Morales and that it is as a result of that incident that the persecution against the vehicle in which the coca leader was traveling.

In a press conference, Del Castillo explained that on Sunday morning a routine police checkpoint by the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking (Felcn) was set up on a highway in the Tropics of Cochabamba, through which Morales’ delegation passed but she refused to stop and be searched.

“The Bolivian Police asks them to reduce their speed, they identify themselves as law enforcement officers, however (…) they speed up, they pull out firearms against humanity and the integrity of the Police, they fire shots from a vehicle against the lives of the Bolivian Police officers and against the vehicles that were being used in the fight against drug trafficking,” explained the Government Minister.

He then added that while trying to escape they ran over a police officer whom they wanted to run over again when he fell to the ground. Del Castillo reported that the police officer has an open fracture of the tibia and fibula, and that he is admitted to a clinic in Santa Cruz, where he was transferred by an Army helicopter.

Del Castillo’s version partially coincides with what Morales explained in his radio program, he noted that a vehicle crossed the road and another tried to close the rear: “I said ‘this is an operation’, we cut, we shot and they followed us ”, quoted the newspaper El País de Tarija.

“No one who dares to shoot a police officer can remain unpunished in this country,” Del Castillo said at the press conference and questioned the legality of the weapons that the former president’s entourage was supposedly carrying.

Prior to the Government Minister’s press conference, Morales had indicated in his X account that he would try to “divert attention from the criminal attack with the false and lying version that it was an anti-drug operation carried out in the tropics of Cochabamba.” .

Attack details

Morales reported this Sunday that he had been the victim of an attempted murder, after two vehicles in which he was traveling were hit 18 times by bullets. The former president was heading early in the morning to the town of Llauca Ñ to do his radio program, when his vehicle was chased and shot at. After receiving a shot in the tire, Morales moved to another car that was part of his entourage, which was also shot and where the driver was injured.

Morales and his allies have attributed the attack to the Government, directly blaming President Luis Arce and his Ministers of Government (Security) and Defense. “This is not an isolated event, it is the obvious demonstration that we are facing a fascist government that does not hesitate to attack the life of former president Evo Morales, to hire paramilitary groups, to criminalize social protest and to take Bolivia to a fratricidal confrontation,” says a statement issued by the evista faction of the Movement Towards Socialism.

President Luis Arce denied his participation in the armed attack against Morales and announced an “immediate and thorough” investigation to clarify the incident.

Shortly after, a group of followers of the coca leader went to ask for explanations at the headquarters of the Ninth Division of the Army where the vehicles involved in the shooting were found. At the scene, in a meeting that was recorded on video, a soldier is heard saying that they were “police” and that the Army does not have that type of vehicles.

According to local press reports, the mob surpassed the military guard minutes after that dialogue, entered the barracks and set fire to the two trucks, one white and the other cherry. Then a vigil was set up at the military compound that continues until Monday.

Local media showed images of armed civilians who arrived at the barracks and boarded a Bolivian Air Force helicopter, with registration number FAB – 782, in which they supposedly left the Tropic region, Morales’s political and union stronghold where he is taking refuge.