Police launch tear gas to disperse supporters of former President Evo Morales who have been blocking roads for days to prevent him from facing a criminal investigation over allegations of abuse of a minor while he was in office, in Parotani, Bolivia, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian President Luis Arce on Friday condemned the seizure of three military units by supporters of former President Evo Morales, calling it “an absolutely reprehensible criminal act that is far from any legitimate social claim of the Indigenous peasant movement.”

In a message on the social media platform X, Arce wrote that “the taking of a military unit is a crime of treason against the homeland and an affront to the country's Constitution."

Earlier on Friday the Bolivian Armed Forces said in a statement that “irregular armed groups” had kidnapped military personnel and took control of military units in the center of the country, where police officers began to clear the roads blocked 19 days ago by supporters of former President Evo Morales.

In the statement, the armed forces urged those responsible for the takeover to “immediately and peacefully” abandon the facility and warned that “anyone who takes up arms against the country will be considered a traitor.”

The warning came after videos circulated on social media with statements from a military leader who is believed to be detained confirming the “peaceful” takeover of a regiment in the coca-growing area of ??Chapare. The authorities have neither confirmed nor denied that he is a member of the Army.

Meanwhile, the police mobilized a large number of troops and tractors to clear the roads of debris with the support of a fraction of the military police.

Officers clearing the roadblocks found an unexpected ally in the popular All Saints’ Day holiday, as many protesters left the roads to celebrate.

The conflict broke out three weeks ago when Bolivian prosecutors launched an investigation into accusations that Morales fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2016, classifying their relationship as statutory rape. Morales has refused to testify in court.

Since reports circulated of a possible warrant against him, the ex-president has been holed up in the Chapare region, in central Bolivia, where loyalist coca growers have kept watch to prevent his arrest.

Last week, 30 police officers were injured and more than 50 protesters were arrested after a standoff between security forces and supporters of Morales. But the so-called blockers regained control of the roads after the law enforcement agents passed through.

The most critical situation is taking place in the coca-growing region of Chapare, a political bastion and refuge of Morales, where his followers have surrounded and threatened to take over police and military barracks, demanding the closure of the judicial cases against the former president.

Several groups, including the mayor of La Paz, Iván Arias, have asked the government to declare a state of emergency in Cochabamba, the region hardest hit by the protests. The government has avoided sending out soldiers en masse to clear the roads. Opponents say the government is showing weakness in dealing with the conflict in the midst of an economy in crisis with rising living costs and fuel shortages.

Morales, a former coca grower, has retained significant support among poor and Indigenous Bolivians despite his resignation in 2019 amid mass protests over his disrupted re-election.

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