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Supporters of former President Morales maintain roadblocks in Bolivia. Reuters
The Bolivian Government Accuses Morales of Shooting at Police During an Anti-Drug Operation

The Bolivian Government Accuses Morales of Shooting at Police During an Anti-Drug Operation

Supporters of the Former President Burn Two Vehicles of the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking

Ramona Asla

Lunes, 28 de octubre 2024, 22:05

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The Bolivian Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, reported on Monday that former President Evo Morales and his security team fired at police on Sunday during an anti-drug operation, which Morales himself denounced as an assassination attempt.

"I shot the tire," Morales said in a video published by Del Castillo during a public appearance covered by the Bolivian newspaper 'El Deber'. The incident occurred, according to the minister's version, when the vehicle transporting Morales was fleeing an anti-drug operation as part of 'Operation Tropical Storm III' and was pursued by vehicles of the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking.

Del Castillo revealed that he himself ordered the police to set up checkpoints in the Tropic of Cochabamba, one of them in Villa Tunari. The checkpoint was set up at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday without incident until "vehicle number 16" arrived, which, according to his version, ignored the police order to slow down and instead opted to "accelerate and draw firearms against the officers."

"Shots were fired from that vehicle against the integrity of the police officers and against the vehicles being used in the fight against drug trafficking. That car, after firing shots, ran over a police officer, who fell to the ground, (then) the vehicle reversed and tried again to run over this officer," the minister recounted.

The officer was injured in the leg with a broken tibia and fibula. "If it hadn't been for the police officer putting his arms on the ground and moving backward, that vehicle would have run over all his intestines," he denounced.

Del Castillo explained that a complaint for attempted murder against Morales has been filed with the Public Prosecutor's Office. "We will go to the last consequences," he stated before rejecting that it was an "attack" as the former president claims based on several "edited videos." "Mr. Morales, no one believes the theater you have staged, but you will have to answer to the Bolivian Justice for the crime of attempted murder," he warned.

Attempted Murder

On Sunday, Morales himself released videos of the incident and denounced an assassination attempt with at least fourteen shots. Eyewitnesses reported that the two vehicles involved in the alleged attack on Morales took refuge in an Army barracks.

Morales' supporters surrounded the barracks and demanded the handover of the vehicles, which they took and later burned. Del Castillo suggested that this action was because they wanted to "eliminate the evidence of the crime." "Why did they order the burning of the Bolivian police vehicles? What was Mr. Evo Morales hiding in that vehicle and why did he not want it to be searched?" he questioned.

"Mr. Morales, if you have nothing to hide, we urge you to hand over that vehicle to the Public Prosecutor's Office, to the Bolivian police, and let us conduct a micro-aspiration to find out what was inside that vehicle," he insisted.

The government and the conservative opposition have denounced a possible "self-attack" to justify Morales' departure from the country. The incident occurs amid an open conflict between Morales and his former protégé, President Luis Arce, and with a roadblock by Morales' supporters that began 15 days ago and is already affecting the supply of fuel and food in the country's main cities.

Minister Castillo explained that 22 blockades remain active—21 in the Cochabamba region and one in Potosí—and that during the day, security forces managed to lift three roadblocks: one in Los Valles (Santa Cruz), another in Betanzos (Potosí), and a third in Aururo (La Paz).

There are 14 detainees "who were using explosive devices against the life, integrity, and humanity of the human talent, who are only respecting and enforcing a democratic rule of law," he argued.

Del Castillo censured "the sound blockade that has been established in defense of pedophilia, in defense of the rape of minors throughout the national territory," referring to the accusations made against former President Morales.

"We, as a national government, state that we respect the right to protest, but when the right to protest is linked to firearms, explosive devices, human rights violations, that can no longer be called an association with peaceful purposes, but quite the opposite," he reproached.

For Del Castillo, it is "a criminal association with the sole purpose of not only trying or seeking to overthrow a democratically elected government but also violating the economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights and even the environmental rights of the Bolivian people as a whole."

CIA Plan

Morales has denounced that the government's version is a "lie." "They took 30 hours to mount a lie. Following the script of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency of the United States). The dictatorship of lies now wants to turn the victim into the perpetrator," Morales posted on X.

He also claimed that "none of us carried any type of weapon." "We denounce that the government of Luis Arce planned and executed a police operation to end my life. There is much evidence that we were ambushed, but they say we fired," he added.

The former president also expressed his willingness for an international investigation by ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) or CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) "to unmask this unpopular and murderous government."

Previously, Morales had denounced that Del Castillo is trying "to divert attention" from the "criminal attack" with a "false and lying version that it was an anti-drug operation."

"If that were the case, why did his elite military and police team fire more than 18 times at the vehicles where I was precisely traveling to Radio Kawsachun Coca?" he questioned in a message posted on his X social media account.

The former president assured that he has information that would prove that in the last 48 hours "no anti-drug operation was carried out in the tropics." "We also verified if any police action was carried out in any union and there was nothing," he assured.

"The government's silence is because they want to cover up with lies and hide their attempt to end my life. We repeat, if Luis Arce did not give the order, he must immediately dismiss and prosecute Eduardo del Castillo and Edmundo Novillo," he insisted.

Morales also reported that his drivers, Franklin Bernabé and Iber Rodriguez, "despite their injuries, are in good health." "Their skill prevented us from being killed," he emphasized.

"Also, our colleague Cesia Vargas is well, her calmness in such a dramatic moment helped a lot. I am very grateful for the team that accompanies me," he noted.

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