Former Bolivian president Evo Morales claims that his car was shot at in an assassination attempt

Former president Evo Morales A Bolivian man claimed to have survived an attack on Sunday after unidentified men opened fire on his car. He was not injured and authorities did not immediately confirm the attack.

Morales maintains that the shots were fired while driving through the coca leaf-growing region of Chapare in Bolivia, the former president’s rural stronghold, whose residents have been blocking the country’s main east-west highway for two weeks.

The roadblocks – a protest against what Morales’ supporters condemn as attempts by President Luis Arce to sabotage his former mentor and bitter political rival – isolated cities and disrupted food and fuel supplies.

Morales, who led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, emerged unscathed from Sunday’s attack and, as usual, calmly told what happened on his weekly radio show.

He told the radio host that as he left his house for the radio station, hooded men fired at least 14 shots at his car, injuring its driver.

Morales was quick to blame his successor, President Arce, with whom he is fighting to become the ruling socialist party’s candidate in next year’s presidential elections. He argued that Arce’s government used physical force because it was unable to defeat him politically.

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

Officials in Arce’s government did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.

Mobile phone footage circulating online shows Morales’ driver bleeding from the back of his head. Morales can be seen in the passenger seat holding the phone to his ear as the vehicle turns and a female voice yells “Duck!”

The video shows that the car’s windshield is cracked by at least three bullets and the rear window is shattered. Morales can be heard saying, “Papacho was shot in the head,” apparently referring to his driver.

“They are shooting at us,” Morales continues over the phone. “They shot out the tire of a car that stopped on the road.”

Morales’ claims deepen political tensions in Bolivia at a precarious time for the cash-strapped Andean nation of 12 million.

It was in June apparent coup attempt by a rebellious military general leading a mutiny in which armored vehicles and soldiers marched to the presidential palace and tried to enter the building. The rebellion retreated after Arce confronted the general, prompting an alleged coup attempt, and ordered him to step down. The general and other senior officers were later arrested.

Then, last month, Morales led a massive march against the government’s economic mismanagement that quickly escalated into street clashes with pro-government mobs. Imported goods are scarce and prices are rising. Drivers wait for hours to refuel at gas stations. The gap between official and black market exchange rates is widening.

Earlier this month, the dispute between Morales and Arce went to court when Bolivian prosecutors opened an investigation into allegations that Morales fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2016, classifying their relationship as statutory rape.

Morales dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and refused to testify in the case. Since reports of a possible arrest warrant against him emerged, the former president has been hiding out in the Chapare region of central Bolivia, where his supporting coca growers are vigilant to protect him from arrest.

President Arce accuses Morales of trying to weaken his administration in order to pursue his own ambitions.