Bolivian government accuses Morales of ‘staged’ assassination attempt

“Mr. Morales, no one believes in the theater you are staging,” Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo said at a press conference.

He added that Morales, who claimed the government was trying to kill him, “will have to answer for the crime of attempted murder” of a police officer.

Del Castillo claimed that the car in which Morales was traveling did not stop at a checkpoint set up by police to combat drug trafficking in the center of Chapare province, one of the country’s largest producers of coca, the raw material for cocaine.

He said police signaled the vehicle to slow down and stop, but the driver instead accelerated and “shots were fired from the vehicle.”

He said one officer was run over but survived before a police patrol pursued Morales’ car and opened fire on it.

Morales, who has been locked in a weeks-long feud with his former ally and rival President Luis Arce, said Sunday that his car was sprayed with bullets by assailants with their faces covered as he was driving to a radio station in the city. Cochabamba.