Armed supporters of Bolivia’s charismatic former president, Evo Morales, stormed a military facility in the central Bolivian region of Cochabamba on November 1. The group forced their way into the facility, seized weapons and ammunition and, according to the government, took more than 200 soldiers hostage.
Tensions have been rising across the country over the past couple of months. At the start of October, supporters of Morales (of which there are many) began blocking key roads around the country in protest at an investigation into him for alleged statutory rape and human trafficking. Morales has denied the allegations and is refusing to testify in court.
And then, on October 24, Morales said he was the subject of an assassination attempt while travelling in his car in the Cochabamba region. He took to social media to accuse the government of ordering a targeted attack on him, which Bolivia’s interior minister, Eduardo del Castillo, has rejected.
