Sputnik, Afp, Ap and Prensa Latina
La Jornada Newspaper
Tuesday, October 29, 2024, p. 24
Peace., The victim becomes the victimizerdeclared former Bolivian president Evo Morales, accusing that The government of President Luis Arce planned and executed a police operation to end my lifeand demanded the dismissal of the Ministers of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, and Defense Ministers, Edmundo Novillo, a day after he was the target of a shooting attack from which he emerged unharmed.
The attack was carried out by a group of military and police eliteMorales reiterated in X. If Luis Arce did not give the orders to kill us, he must immediately dismiss and prosecute his ministersheld.
There is a lot of evidence that they ambushed us, but they say we shot them. We did not carry weapons and we are open to an international investigation by ALBA or Celac to unmask this anti-popular and murderous government.said.
In another message, Morales noted: The Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, will try to divert attention from the attack with the lying version that it was an anti-drug operation carried out in the tropics of Cochabamba. If that had been the case, why did their elite military and police team shoot more than 18 times at the vehicles where I was traveling to Radio Kawsachun Coca? The government’s silence is because it wants to cover up its attempt to end my life with lies..
Hours before, Minister Del Castillo assured that the former president and his security team shot at police officers during an anti-drug operation. Mr. Morales, no one believes the theater you have created.
Novillo stated: I want to make it clear, in the face of the falsehoods that seek to muddy the armed forces, that we would have been part of the plan, the execution or the cover-up, I clarify emphatically that there was nothing of that and there was no cover-up.
His caravan did not stop
According to the Bolivian authority, on Sunday morning the police signaled to one of the vehicles in the cocalero leader’s caravan to slow down when passing through an anti-drug checkpoint, but the driver disregarded the order.
Instead of slowing down, they accelerate, pull out firearms and shoot from a vehicle against the agents and run over a uniformed man, Del Castillo explained, adding that a judicial complaint was filed against Morales for attempted murder against a police officer who was injured.
The minister stated that the agents were unaware that the former president was in the vehicle.
Del Castillo added that the police vehicles used at the checkpoint were casually extracted from the ninth division of the army by people close to the former president and burned “to eliminate evidence of the crime.
They did not want to investigate that it was Morales and his people who shot at the policehe accused, and challenged the former president to submit to an investigation.
Tell the Bolivian people what he was hiding in his vehicle and why he did not slow down at the police checkpoint. That he undergo a microaspiration test (to detect cocaine) to see what he was transporting, weapons or controlled substancesDel Castillo demanded.
As a result of the attack, pressure measures against the government were radicalized and the road blockade that began 15 days ago by organizations related to Morales was expanded.
At the close of this edition, local media reported the death of a transporter at a blockade point between Oruro and Potosí, apparently due to dehydration and lack of food.
Bolivia registers at least 22 blockades that prevent the transit of passengers and cargo between the east and west of the country. The losses reach 1.2 billion dollars, according to the Ministry of Productive Development and Plural Economy.
The road blocks began with the demand for the closure of a judicial investigation against Morales for the alleged abuse of a minor when he was president, with whom he had a daughter, and then other demands were added that now include Arce’s resignation.
The disputes between both characters for control of the Movement towards Socialism party, facing the 2025 presidential elections, were complicated by the economic situation that Morales uses to question the management of Arce, who, in turn, denounced a plot by Morales to force his resignation.
After the attack suffered by former Bolivian president Evo Morales, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum expressed her solidarity and called to avoid violence.
Let it be peace and the political definition, politics is for that, to avoid violence. Our condemnation of this fact and also our solidarity and always the search for peace and non-violencehe pointed out.
