Former Bolivian President Evo Morales claims his car was shot at

LA PAZ, Bolivia —

Former President Evo Morales The Bolivian claimed he survived an assassination attempt on Sunday after unknown assailants opened fire on his car. He was unharmed in the alleged attack, which quickly became the latest flashpoint in the power struggle between the ex-leader and his successor, current president Luis Arce.

Morales, 65, blamed President Arce’s government for the outbreak of violence, saying it was part of a coordinated campaign by Bolivian authorities to remove him from politics.

Arce’s government has pointed the finger at Morales, claiming the left-wing icon staged an attack on himself to boost his own political fortunes ahead of next year’s presidential election.

Both sides rejected the claims against them.

A flurry of bitter accusations threatened to ignite Bolivia’s political gunpowder and further plunge the impoverished Andean nation of 12 million into chaos.

Morales claimed the shooting was carried out while he was being driven in Bolivia’s coca-growing Chapare region, the former president’s rural stronghold, whose residents have blocked the main east-west highway for the past two weeks in a show of defiance and solidarity after new legal threats against Morales.

Roadblocks and mass rallies blocked major cities and disrupted food and fuel supplies, deepening the country’s economic crisis.

Morales, who was Bolivia’s first indigenous president from 2006-2019, described the shooting that hit his car on Sunday as part of a plot by Arce’s government to oust him from politics.

On Sunday, Morales emerged unscathed, appearing on his weekly radio show in his usual calm manner to talk about what happened. He told the radio host that as he was driving from his home to the radio station, hooded men fired at least 14 shots at his car, injuring the driver.

“Arce will go down in history as the worst president ever,” Morales said. “The shooting of the former president is the last straw.”

For Arce’s government, Deputy Security Minister Roberto Rios insisted that the police had not carried out any operations against the former president.

He said authorities are investigating the theory that Morales committed a “possible suicide attack.”

“Morales seeks confrontation and violence on the roads for political interests and to achieve impunity,” Rios told reporters.

Officials in Arce’s government did not respond to requests from The Associated Press to clarify the disputed claims.

When a cellphone video showing Morales’ driver bleeding from the back of his head went viral, his supporters called for mass rallies to show their anger. In a video taken from inside the car, Morales can be seen sitting in the passenger seat with a phone to her ear as the vehicle reverses and a female voice yells, “Duck!”

The footage shows how the car’s front windshield was cracked by at least three bullets, and the back windshield was shattered. Morales can be heard saying, “Papacho’s shot in the head,” apparently referring to his driver.

“They’re shooting at us,” Morales continued on the phone. “They shot the wheel of the car and it stopped on the road.”

Even before the shots rang out, the political atmosphere in the country was full of personal attacks and at times violence.

In June, there was an attempted coup by a rogue general who later accused Arce of asking him to stage a coup to boost the president’s faltering popularity.

Last month, in a show of political strength, Morales and his supporters embarked on a long-awaited, multi-day march to La Paz, the capital, from a rural village to force Arce to address acute fuel and dollar shortages.

There are few imported goods, and prices are rising. Drivers wait for hours to fill up at gas stations. The gap between official and black exchange rates is increasing.

The September march, which also called on the authorities to allow Morales to run in next year’s elections despite his disqualification by the electoral commission, quickly turned into street clashes with counter-protesters.

Earlier this month, Bolivian prosecutors opened an investigation into allegations that Morales fathered a child by a 15-year-old girl in 2016, describing the case as statutory rape. Dismissing the new prosecution attempt as politically motivated, Morales refused to testify in court.

After reports of a possible warrant against him emerged, the ex-president was holed up in the Chapare region of central Bolivia, where loyal coca growers kept a close watch to protect him from arrest.

Valdez and Debre write for the Associated Press. DeBre reported from Buenos Aires.