Supporters of Bolivia’s ex-president Evo Morales stormed a barracks within the central Chapare area and took about 20 squaddies hostage, army assets stated on Friday, marking a dramatic escalation of their standoff with the state.The hostage scenario comes just about 3 weeks after backers of Morales – the rustic’s first Indigenous chief – started blockading roads to forestall his arrest on what he calls trumped-up rape fees aimed toward thwarting his political comeback.Morales, 65, used to be in place of business from 2006 to 2019, when he resigned below force from the army after elections marked via allegations of fraud.Bolivia’s military stated on Friday in a remark that “abnormal armed teams” had “abducted army team of workers” and seized guns and ammunition within the Chapare.An army supply informed AFP on situation of anonymity that “about 20” squaddies had been taken hostage.In a video broadcast via Bolivian media, 16 squaddies had been observed surrounded via protesters maintaining pointed sticks aloft.“The Cacique Maraza Regiment has been taken over via Tipnis activists. They’ve bring to a halt our water, electrical energy and are preserving us hostage,” a uniformed guy is heard pronouncing within the video.Tipnis is an Indigenous stronghold of Morales’s.In spite of being barred from operating once more, Morales desires to problem his former best friend grew to become rival President Luis Arce for the nomination of the leftwing Mas birthday party within the nation’s August 2025 presidential election.Days after Morales led a march of 1000’s of principally Indigenous Bolivians at the administrative capital Los angeles Paz to protest towards Arce’s insurance policies, prosecutors introduced he used to be below investigation for rape, human trafficking and human smuggling over his alleged courting with a 15-year-old lady in 2015.Morales, who’s accused of fathering a daughter with the woman, has known as the accusations “a lie”.On Wednesday, Arce demanded an “instant” finish to the roadblocks and stated the federal government would “workout its constitutional powers to safeguard the pursuits of the Bolivian folks” if the protesters didn’t comply.His caution used to be interpreted via some Bolivians as a risk to make use of the army to finish the blockade, which has led to popular meals and gasoline shortages and precipitated costs of elementary items to bounce.The Chapare is the place Morales claimed he used to be the sufferer of an assassination try final week that he blamed on state brokers.In a video he shared on social media, he’s observed travelling in a pickup truck riddled with bullet holes close to town of Cochabamba.The federal government stated police fired at the car after coming below hearth from Morales’s convoy at a checkpoint set as much as fight drug trafficking within the Chapare, one of the most nation’s major coca-growing areas.Morales, a former coca grower, used to be highly regarded till he attempted to avoid the charter and search a fourth time period.His supporters first of all demanded an finish to what they known as his “judicial persecution”, however the protest motion has snowballed into a much wider anti-government insurrection marked via requires Arce to surrender.Morales’s supporters, who’ve vowed to not budge from the barricades, blame Arce for a pointy upward thrust in meals and gasoline costs and shortages that pre-date the protests.A minimum of 61 cops and 9 civilians were injured in clashes between the protesters and safety forces in contemporary days.Arce has estimated the commercial price of the blockades at greater than $1.7bn (£1.3bn).
