Supporters of former President Evo Morales, below, advance toward supporters of current president Luis Arce in El Alto, Bolivia, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's pro-government supporters and security forces confronted protesters loyal to former president Evo Morales in a street melee Sunday, the second such violent escalation this week as fears grew of further unrest in the Andean nation.

The protesters and counterprotesters hurled firecrackers, homemade explosives and stones at each other across a dusty sprawl in the city of El Alto, while riot police unleashed tear gas into the crowds. At least eight people were injured, Bolivia's health ministry reported.

The standoff — erupting while thousands of Bolivians supporting Morales continued a weeklong 190-kilometer (118-mile) march to the capital of La Paz — spoke to the depth of the schism in Bolivian politics ahead of next year's presidential election.

Morales and his former economy minister-turned-bitter-rival, current President Luis Arce, are vying to lead Bolivia's long-dominant socialist party, known by its Spanish acronym MAS, into the 2025 vote. In recent months their power struggle has paralyzed the government, exacerbated the depletion of Bolivia's foreign-exchange reserves and fueled street protests.

The rolling political crisis began in 2019, when Morales — who came to power in 2006 — was forced to resign after being reelected to a third term in a vote marred by accusations of fraud and mass protests. He left the country but made a dramatic political comeback a year later, returning to find he had retained widespread support among poor and Indigenous Bolivians.

Mobilized by Morales, bound together by misery over Bolivia’s economic meltdown and outraged by President Arce's efforts to block the candidacy of their polarizing former leader, the marchers stopped Sunday on their sixth day of walking to sleep at an encampment 11 kilometers (7 miles) from El Alto, a sprawling city on a plateau above Bolivia’s capital.

Seeking to portray the march as a reflection of Bolivia’s Indigenous highland culture as much as a political exercise, Morales — surrounded by supporters waving the multicolored flag dear to Indigenous Andeans that the leftist leader turned into a patriotic symbol when he served as the country’s first Indigenous president — praised his supporters’ “peace and enthusiasm.”

Other Morales supporters broke off from the march and pressed into the scrappy outskirts of El Alto, where security forces and supporters of Arce had massed in anticipation of their arrival. The protesters and counterprotesters clashed in the neighborhood of Ventilla as acrid smoke from burning tires and thick clouds of tear gas coursed through the streets.

Each side blamed the other for the violence. Morales accused Arce's government of deploying “paramilitary groups to incite violence," busing officers into El Alto to stir up trouble — a claim echoed by Bolivia's ombudsman.

“It’s very sad that this government doesn't pay attention to its conscience,” said Benita Cruz, a Morales supporter at the scene of Sunday’s clashes. “They are repressing the poor and most humble people.”

A senior minister in Arce's government, Eduardo Del Castillo, lambasted Morales' march as "coup-mongering." In increasingly dramatic terms, Arce — who earlier this year faced what he described as a miltiary coup attempt — has accused Morales of seeking to sabotage his government.

The unrest offered a possible preview for the coming days, as Morales and his thousands of supporters have promised to continue their so-called “March to Save Bolivia” into La Paz despite vows by Arce's supporters to prevent them.

“We are holding on until we reach La Paz, we want to tell the government that it has seven days to solve the massive problems we have in the country,” said Marta Mamani, one of the marchers.

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Valdez reported from La Paz, Bolivia. Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024