Supporters of Bolivia’s ex-leader Morales detain 200 soldiers

Supporters of former Bolivian president Evo Morales are holding at least 200 soldiers hostage, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday, as their standoff with the state continues to escalate.

Three military units in Chapare province were “assaulted by irregular groups” on Friday, with the assailants “taking more than 200 military personnel hostage” from three barracks, the ministry said.

“They seized weapons and ammunition,” it added.

Backers of Morales, the country’s first Indigenous leader, began blocking roads three weeks ago to prevent his arrest on what he calls trumped-up charges aimed at thwarting his political comeback.

The government had sent troops to the area in Cochabamba department to help police in clearing the roadblocks.

Early reports Friday had mentioned only 20 soldiers being detained.

A video broadcast Friday showed 16 soldiers surrounded by protesters holding pointed sticks.

“They have cut off our water, electricity and are keeping us hostage,” a uniformed man is heard saying.

Morales, after first threatening a hunger strike unless the government agreed to negotiations, later urged his supporters to consider suspending the roadblocks to “avoid bloodshed.”

Morales, 65, was in office from 2006 to 2019, when he resigned under a cloud after elections marked by fraud.

Despite being barred from running again, Morales wants to challenge President Luis Arce, his former ally, for the nomination of the left-wing MAS party in elections next August.

Days after he led a march of thousands of mainly Indigenous Bolivians on the capital La Paz to protest Arce’s policies, prosecutors announced Morales was under investigation for statutory rape, human trafficking and human smuggling over his alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2015.

Morales has called the accusations “a lie.”

On Wednesday, Arce demanded an “immediate” end to the roadblocks, saying the government would “exercise its constitutional powers to safeguard the interests of the Bolivian people.”

It was in Chapare that Morales claimed last week he was the victim of an assassination attempt that he blamed on state agents. A video he shared on social media showed his pickup truck riddled with bullet holes.

The government said police fired on the vehicle after Morales’s convoy first opened fire at a checkpoint.

Morales’s supporters initially demanded an end to what they called his “judicial persecution.” But the protest movement has snowballed into a wider anti-government revolt marked by calls for Arce to resign.

They blame Arce, who has been in power since November 2020, for a sharp rise in food and fuel prices and shortages that pre-date the protests.

At least 90 people, mostly officers, have been injured in clashes surrounding the protests.