For the past few months, Bolivia has been a victim of local terrorism, blackmail, and the hunger for power of a tyrant. It began with Evo Morales being formally disqualified from participation in the coming presidential elections. A unanimous decision of the Constitutional Tribunal upheld the ban, noting that Bolivia’s Constitution limits presidents and vice presidents to two terms (Morales had already served three). He was also forced to resign in 2019 after committing electoral fraud in an attempt to govern for a fourth illegal consecutive term.

By May 12, 2025, Morales made his intentions clear at a rally: “If they don’t allow us to run, I don’t know what will happen, the people will rise up.” At that time, Morales already had an apprehension warrant for failing to appear in court on charges of “aggravated rape with human trafficking.” He was reportedly hiding in the Chapare region, which has very little police presence.

The violence began swiftly. On May 16, a pro-Morales march broke through two police security perimeters attempting to reach the Electoral Supreme Tribunal (TSE). Police dispersed the crowd with tear gas, but road blockades soon followed, organized by Morales loyalists. On May 28, another attack targeted the TSE perimeter, this time with dynamite and stones. Police again responded with tear gas. …

Evo Morales justifies the violence as “just and legitimate social protests.” But the violence and terror was not only unjustified but it was brutal in nature. One of the policemen dead was shot, another two were beaten to death and thrown to the river, and a fourth was beaten, tortured, and killed with dynamite. The fifth confirmed victim was not only a civilian but a youth of 17 years old who was killed trying to defend his home.

With an eventual more adequate response of police intervention the town was liberated and the blockades around the country were reduced to only one in Potosi (the department where Llallagua is located) and 12 in the whole country. Seven people were arrested after the violence in Llallagua. More police officers were deployed across the highways to reinforce the unblocked routes. Furthermore, the area around Llallagua was nicknamed “mexico chico” and presence of drug trafficking and production were identified.

The violence is far from over as Morales remains free, as blockades remain active and terror groups add on every day the new scandals and more abuses. Evo Morales’s latest assault on Bolivia is not merely a political dispute. It is a campaign of organized terror against the rule of law. Behind the euphemisms of “social protest” lies a clear pattern: blackmail through blockades, threats against judges and civilians, and the systematic use of violence to destabilize the country in service of one man’s personal ambitions. The siege of cities, the abuse of medical personnel, and the bloodshed in Llallagua are not isolated incidents—they are the price of a state too fearful or complicit to confront its most dangerous citizen. If Bolivia is to survive, it must stop treating Morales as a political actor and start recognizing him for what he is: a fugitive and terrorist tyrant waging war against his own nation.