President Arce ordered security forces to unblock roads occupied by Morales supporters.

On Wednesday, Bolivian President Luis Arce ordered the military to clear roads that have been blocked for 10 days by supporters of former President Evo Morales. Social and Indigenous activists are demanding that Morales be allowed to run as a presidential candidate in the upcoming August elections.

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From the presidential palace in La Paz, Arce announced an operation to unblock the highway linking the central region of Cochabamba with western Bolivia, saying the protests are “hurting people’s wallets.”

The most conflict-ridden area is Parotani, located about 25 miles from Cochabamba, where police and army forces launched an early morning operation to reopen the road leading west.

Security forces used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, who retreated into the surrounding hills. Authorities later cleared the highway of rocks, mounds of dirt and debris. Local media reported injuries, including one police officer who suffered a serious head injury.

Arce said the roadblocks are aimed at overthrowing his government and that operations to remove them would continue across the country. Morales, in turn, warned that using force to break the roadblocks would lead to “greater rebellion against the government.”

The text reads, “Protests in Potosi: Drivers strike and blockade. Civic activists march.”

“Morales’ followers have been intimidating members of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, police officers and government advisors. They have assaulted health workers and security personnel, attacked communities, blocked roads and worsened shortages. They’re planning to surround the city of La Paz and starve it into submission. We will not allow that to happen,” Arce said.

Prosecutors are currently investigating Morales for terrorism and seven other charges, following the release last week of an audio recording in which the leftist leader allegedly instructs his supporters to lay siege to La Paz.

However, in an interview with Radio Kawsachun Coca, Morales accused the Arce administration of criminalizing social protest in Bolivia, a country he said no longer has democracy due to repression by security forces and the banning of political parties and candidates.

“In both rural and urban areas, the Bolivian people are mobilized over food prices,” Morales said, blaming President Arce for inflation, a shortage of U.S. dollars, and fuel scarcity.

Morales is pushing to run again despite lacking a political party and despite the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling that re-election is allowed only once consecutively — ruling out a third term. Morales previously governed Bolivia for three terms.

Following disputes with the Arce administration, Morales resigned from the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), the party he founded and led for nearly three decades.

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: EFE – teleSUR

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