.“Mr Morales, nobody believes the theater you have staged,”- Bolivia’s Home minister

Bolivia’s government has accused former president Evo Morales of staging an attempt on his own life, saying that shots fired at his car on Sunday came after he tried to run a police checkpoint. “Mr Morales, nobody believes the theater you have staged,” the home minister, Eduardo del Castillo, told a news conference.

He added that Morales, who claims the government tried to kill him, would “have to answer … for the crime of attempted murder” of a police officer.

In central Chapare province, one of the nation’s largest growers of coca, the basic ingredient for cocaine, authorities set up a checkpoint to combat drug trafficking, but the vehicle Morales was driving through failed to halt, according to Del Castillo. He said that “shots were fired from a vehicle” and that the driver accelerated when the police signaled for the car to slow down and stop. He claimed that after a police patrol pursued and shot on Morales’ vehicle, an officer was struck but survived.

While traveling to a radio station in the city of Cochabamba on Sunday, Morales, who has been in a weeks-long standoff with his former friend turned adversary President Luís Arce, said that his car was covered in gunfire from attackers who had their faces hidden.

The conflicting allegations signal a risky new phase of conflict within the ruling party, which has already been shattered by the animosity between Morales and his former protégé Arce, who served as minister of the economy during Morales’ nearly 14-year leadership that ended in 2019. Following a contentious election outcome that rocked the nation, Morales, 66, resigned. The following year, Arce was elected, although he has been trying harder to keep his old boss at bay.

In an interview with the media  on Monday, Morales claimed Arce’s government was behind the alleged attack. Morales denied his team had been carrying any weapons, called the attack an “ambush”, and said that the government’s version was a “montage of lies”.

“I heard three shots in a burst … there were at least seven, eight, nine shots,” he said, adding that since then they had found as many as 20 bullets. Asked if the attack could have been carried out by individuals acting alone, Morales said: “No. That’s to say it was an instruction from the government.” He did not provide evidence of his claim.