Supporters of Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales took more than 200 soldiers hostage on Saturday. The Bolivian Foreign Ministry reported that the activists occupied three military facilities in the region of Chapare during protests on Friday. The statement accused them of possessing weapons and ammunition. At least 30 police officers are reportedly injured, and more than 50 protesters were arrested last week.

The protests have been ongoing for weeks, since Bolivian prosecutors started an investigation into Morales’ alleged statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl in 2016, and his subsequent refusal to testify in court. Since reports of a possible warrant for his arrest, Morales has been hiding in the rural area of Chapare in central Bolivia. His supporters have demanded the closure of the judicial cases against him, and threatened to take over police and military barracks in the event of an attempt to arrest him.

Bolivia’s Foreign Ministry published a statement labeling the protesters as members of “irregular groups.” It said that the government is willing to open dialogue with all social sectors of the country, but cited a difficulty in establishing such process due to the protesters’ ongoing actions.

The ruling president, Luis Arce, condemned the taking of the soldiers as “an absolutely reprehensible criminal act that is far from any legitimate social claim of the Indigenous peasant movement.” 

The minister of government, Eduardo Del Castillo, issued a statement in September accusing Morales of a “destabilization” campaign aimed at advancing his “personal political interest” of becoming a candidate in the next presidential elections in 2025. Morales first took power in 2006, but had to flee the country after protests following his attempt to seek a fourth term in office in 2019. Bolivia’s Constitutional Court in December 2023 disqualified Morales from running for re-election based on an advisory opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that prohibited indefinite presidential re-election. This reversed the Constitutional Court’s ruling of 2017 that allowed him to seek a fourth term.

The 2023 Constitutional Court decision also cited Article 156 of Bolivia’s Constitution, which holds that no president can serve more than two terms.