Terrifying second former Bolivian President tries to hurry away after ‘assassination try by unidentified males’: Video exhibits bullet holes scattered throughout Evo Morales’s automobile
This is the terrifying moment the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, escaped an assassination attempt in his car.
Mr Morales was seen attempting to speed away as bullet holes were shot in his windscreen, after unidentified men opened fire on his vehicle.
The former president was left uninjured and there was no immediate confirmation of the attack from local authorities.
In the horrifying footage, a passenger is heard yelling for the window to be closed as shots are fired.
The driver of the car is shown in the clip with wounds to the head from five gunshots, while the ex-president is heard explaining the events to someone on the phone.
At one point the politician is heard shouting ‘Block them. They are chasing me. Block them!’
The rear passenger is then heard about to call the area’s local mayor, as the car speeds towards Shinahota, a small town in the country’s central Cochabamba department.
The area is in the leaf-growing region of Chapare, the ex-president’s rural stronghold whose residents have blockaded the country’s main east-west road for the past two weeks.
Bullets were shown shot into the vehicle carrying Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales, as he escaped an assassination attempt
Mr Morales drove off and was left uninjured after unidentified men opened fire on his car
More large bullet holes scattered across Mr Morales’ vehicle
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales said gunmen fired a hail of bullets at his car Sunday as he traveled to a radio interview in the central city of Cochabamba
Released by Radio Kawsachun Coca (RKC), this image shows what it said are bullet impacts on a pickup truck in which former Bolivian President Evo Morales was traveling in
Mr Morales was left uninjured and there was no immediate confirmation of the attack from local authorities
Mr Morales was quick to blame his successor Mr Arce, with whom he is fighting to be the candidate of the governing socialist party in next year’s presidential election
Pacifico Choque, deputy of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party and supporter of Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales addresses the media after Morales’ said that his vehicle was fired upon on Sunday
Supporters of Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales address the media after Morales’ assassination attempt claims
The roadblocks – protesting against what Mr Morales’s 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 until 2019, emerged unscathed from the alleged attack on 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, injuring his driver.
Mr Morales was quick to blame his successor Mr Arce, with whom he is fighting to be the candidate of the governing socialist party in next year’s presidential election.
He claimed Mr 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.
Phone video circulating online shows Mr Morales’s driver bleeding from the back of his head.
Mr Morales can be seen in the passenger seat holding a phone to his ear as the vehicle swerves and a woman shouts: ‘Duck.’
The footage shows the car’s front windshield cracked by at least three bullets and its rear windshield shattered.
Mr Morales can be heard saying: ‘Papacho has been shot in the head,’ apparently referring to his driver.
Mr Morales claimed President of Bolivia Luis Arce’s (pictured) government resorted to physical force having been unable to defeat him politically
A burning barricade is seen as police officers attempt to dismantle a blockade set by supporters of Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales in protest of the government of President Luis Arce, in Parotani, Bolivia October 25
Police clears the fire barricades with a tractor as supporters of former Bolivian President Evo Morales block roads to pressure against him being prosecuted over allegations of minor abuse, near Cochabamba
Police officers shoot tear gas at supporters of Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales as an attempt to dismantle a blockade set in protest of the government of President Luis Arce, in Parotani, Bolivia October 25
Riot police shoot tear gas cans at demonstrators supporting former president Evo Morales during a road blockade in Cochabamba
‘They are shooting at us,’ Mr Morales continues on the phone.
‘They shot the tyre of the car and it stopped on the road.’
Mr Morales’s claim deepens political tensions in Bolivia at a volatile moment for the cash-strapped nation of 12 million.
In June there was an alleged attempted coup by a rogue general.
Last month, Mr Morales led a massive march against the government’s mismanagement of the economy that quickly devolved into street clashes with pro-government mobs.
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 give evidence 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.
Mr Arce accuses Mr Morales of trying to undermine his administration to advance his own ambitions.
