A group of followers of Evo Morales took soldiers hostage in Bolivia

Thousands of followers of Evo Morales surrounded a military barracks this Friday in Vila Tunari, a coca-producing region in central Bolivia, where the former president is protesting an arrest order. A video broadcast on local television showed about twenty soldiers being taken “hostage” by farmers who were thus trying to prevent them from blocking the highway that isolates the city of Cochabamba. An unidentified soldier asked, “They have cut off our water and electricity, they have taken us hostage, we want a quick solution, do not interfere at the blockade points, because the lives of my trainers and soldiers are in danger.” To the President, Luis Arce.

Armed forces warned about the “seizure of military units” and the kidnapping of “weapons and ammunition” in what is known as the Cochabamba Tropics, the coca-growing region where Evo Morales lives. There has been no presence of the Bolivian state other than the military in the region since the conflict began 19 days ago, after it was revealed that authorities had arrested Morales in an investigation for alleged “statutory incitement to human trafficking”. Had intended to do. Police have abandoned the area, where banks and public offices no longer operate.

avistas They have been radicalized since a police attempt on October 27 to stop the truck in which the former president was traveling through Chapare failed. The vehicle was fired upon several times, with protesters accusing the government of “trying to kill Ivo”. The main objective of the protesters is to stop judicial harassment against Morales and to ensure that he is registered as a candidate in the next 2025 elections.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, said this Friday that, according to a statement issued by his office, “he is closely following the escalation of tensions in Bolivia with concern.” “The Secretary-General calls on political actors to resolve their differences by peaceful means and with full respect for human rights,” he indicated.

Immediately after the video aired, the radio avista Kausachun Koka showed the unit photos of the agreement between protesters and the army taken from Villa Tunari. The first assured that they would not take weapons and the men in uniform promised not to use them against the population. The radio stressed that this gesture “should not be understood as a surrender of the army, but as an agreement between brothers who fight together.”

Images of other non-aggression agreements between the military and coca growers were also seen elsewhere. Commanders of various army units promised that they would not intervene to avoid causing harm or using their firearms against the population. With the same strategy, those responsible for the Ninth Division Headquarters, the largest military center in the area, had previously managed to evacuate the families of their soldiers from the area.

However Arce warned to use its “constitutional powers” to unblock the roads linking Cochabamba to the rest of the country, which meant the use of armed forces firepower, snipers and repression with elite groups of the military. It is possible What Evo Morales predicted has not yet been fulfilled.

Morales wrote a letter to Arce asking “how do you think he will be remembered” if he “uses deadly force against those who brought him to power with their votes, their struggle, and their blood.” ” He also holds them responsible for what he describes as an “attempt to murder” against him, in reference to the police firing at his vehicle when they were trying to arrest him.

Prosecutors have accused Morales of fathering a daughter with a 15-year-old girl in 2016, when he was 56 and the country’s president. To strengthen the charge and be able to take ex officio action, the prosecution also accused him of inciting prostitution by giving a public position to the girl’s mother. The case was already known in 2019 under the government of Jeanine Áñez, but the Movement Towards Socialism, which returned to power in 2020 under the leadership of Luis Arce, did not investigate it until the president asked his former political mentor. Didn’t break up with. The desire of both to lead the powerful, but highly questioned today, left the Bolivians.

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