Morales supporters storm Bolivia military barracks, take hostages
LA PAZ—Supporters of Bolivia’s ex-president Evo Morales stormed a barracks in central Chapare province and took around 20 soldiers hostage, military sources said Friday, marking a dramatic escalation in their standoff with the state.
The hostage situation comes nearly three weeks after backers of Morales—the country’s first Indigenous leader—began blocking roads to prevent his arrest on what he calls trumped-up rape charges aimed at thwarting his political comeback.
Morales, 65, was in office from 2006 to 2019, when he resigned under a cloud after elections marked by fraud.
‘Irregular group’
Bolivia’s armed forces said Friday in a statement that “irregular armed groups” had “kidnapped military personnel” and seized weapons and ammunition in Chapare.
A military source told AFP on condition of anonymity that “about 20” soldiers were taken hostage.
In a video broadcast by Bolivian media, 16 soldiers were seen surrounded by protesters holding pointed sticks aloft.
“The Cacique Maraza Regiment has been taken over by Tipnis activists. They have cut off our water, electricity and are keeping us hostage,” a uniformed man is heard saying in the video.
Morales meanwhile told reporters in Chapare that he would go on a hunger strike “until the government comes … to the negotiating table.
Rape charge
Later however, he called on his supporters to consider temporarily suspending the roadblocks to “avoid bloodshed.”
Despite being barred from running again, Morales wants to challenge President Luis Arce, his former ally-turned-rival, for the nomination of the left-wing MAS party in the country’s August 2025 elections.
Days after he led a march of thousands of mainly Indigenous Bolivians on the capital La Paz to protest Arce’s policies, prosecutors announced he was under investigation for rape, human trafficking and human smuggling over his alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2015.
