Bolivia's iconic ex-President Morales calls for anti-government march as political fight escalates

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia's hugely popular and controversial former leftist president, Evo Morales, on Monday called on supporters to take to the streets in protest against his bitter political rival, current President Luis Arce, who hours earlier accused Morales on national TV of trying to overthrow him.

Morales’ appeal to Bolivia’s farmers, miners and peasants followed President Arce's unprecedented televised speech late Sunday lambasting his former mentor. Accusing Morales of trying to sabotage his administration and undermine democracy, Arce escalated a high-stakes power struggle that has pushed Bolivia to the brink.

“Enough, Evo!” Arce exclaimed on state TV. “Until now, I have tolerated your attacks and slander in silence. But putting the lives of people at risk is something I cannot tolerate.”

Arce, who has faced a series of mounting crises with his ruling party riven by disagreements, alleged that Morales’ attempts to mobilize support and run against Arce in next year's presidential election was “putting democracy at risk."

"You are threatening the entire country," Arce said, claiming that Morales sought to return to power by “means fair or foul."

His dramatic speech in the Andean nation of 12 million dredged up the chaos and bloodshed of 2019, when Morales ran for an unconstitutional third term and won. After accusations of fraud sparked mass protests, Morales resigned under pressure from the army, in what his supporters call a coup. At least 36 people were killed in the ensuing crackdown by security forces.

Morales, who served as Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, has vowed to unleash unrest if he is stopped from running in the August 2025 elections.

Ever since the constitutional court last year barred the charismatic leader from the race, coca cultivators, Indigenous tribes and workers — whom Morales represented during his presidency from 2006 to 2019 — have come to his defense with street protests, marches and road blockades.

Speaking to reporters, Morales encouraged the international community to follow his so-called “March to Save Bolivia" on Tuesday from the southeast village of Caracollo to Bolivia's administrative capital of La Paz. He described the march — 85 kilometers (53 miles) by foot along a highway — as a natural expression of protest against the failure of Arce’s government to fix the worsening economic crisis.

Firing back at Arce on Monday, Morales insisted that he had no selfish ulterior motives.

“The march is the response of a people fed up with their unthinking government, which has maintained absolute silence in the face of the crisis, corruption and the destruction of stability,” Morales wrote on social media platform X. “President Arce is not only desperate, but also confused.”

Over the past year, the Arce-Morales rift has polarized Bolivia, tainting the country's politics and creating a sense of turmoil that soldiers sought to seize upon in June in an alleged coup attempt.

Anti-government protesters on Monday flocked to the main road leading to Bolivia’s tourist hotspot of Lake Titicaca, convening and calling on Arce to resign under the watchful gaze of riot police. Some demonstrators piled dirt at the entrances of other roads in the La Paz area, impeding traffic.

“It’s an incompetent government that we have, and it won’t solve the economic crisis,” said Pablo Merma, a peasant leader of the so-called Red Ponchos, radical Indigenous activists from the high plains who rallied Monday against the president. “We are not afraid of you, Arce.”

Another protest leader, Ponciano Santos, warned Arce that the social movement would hold him responsible for whatever happened on Tuesday.

"If you tear gas us, if you interfere with our march, the government will fall,” Santos told reporters.

Although Arce was Morales’ former economy minister and his candidate in Bolivia’s 2020 elections, the erstwhile allies began vying for power after Morales’ return from exile and political comeback the same year.

Bolivia’s political stagnation and economic quagmire — with fuel scarce and the central bank dangerously short on foreign currency reserves — has caused some Bolivians once outraged over Morales’ strongman tendencies to grow nostalgic for the ex-leader’s transformation of the economy and remarkable reduction of poverty.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Rocks block a highway towards Lake Titicaca in Vilaque on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. The rocks were placed by people protesting for the resignation of Bolivian President Luis Arce for his management of the economy. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Rocks block a highway towards Lake Titicaca in Vilaque on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. The roadblock was placed by protesters demanding the resignation of Bolivian President Luis Arce for his management of the economy. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Police keep protesters from blocking more lanes as they protest for the resignation of Bolivian President Luis Arce for his management of the economy in Corapata, on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Police patrol at a roadblock in Vilaque on the outskirts of El Alto, Bolivia, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. The roadblock was placed by protesters demanding the resignation of Bolivian President Luis Arce for his management of the economy. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid amid freezing temperatures in an apparent snub to U.S.-led peace efforts as Moscow's invasion of its neighbor approaches the four-year mark.

Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.

One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said.

The daytime temperature in Kyiv, which has endured freezing temperatures for more than two weeks, was minus 12 degrees C (about 10 degrees F), with streets covered in ice and the rumble of generators heard throughout the capital.

Kyiv has grappled with severe power shortages for days, although Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday night's strikes caused the biggest electrical outage the city has faced so far.

More than 500 residential buildings remained without central heating Tuesday. Throughout the city, bare trees were weighed down with icicles and snow was piled up next to sidewalks.

To cope, friends and relatives gathered in those apartments that have power or hot water, at least temporarily. They charge their phones, take hot showers, or share a warm drink.

Klitschko ordered the city to provide one hot meal per day to needy residents. He also announced that workers in the city’s water, heating and road maintenance services would receive bonuses for working “day and night” to restore critical infrastructure.

Four days earlier, Russia also sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack and, for only the second time in the war, it used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in what appeared to be a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies that it won’t back down.

On Monday, the U.S. accused Russia of a “ dangerous and inexplicable escalation ” of the fighting at a time when the Trump administration is trying to advance peace negotiations.

Tammy Bruce, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Washington deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.

Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water in winter over the course of the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”

The attack in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region also wounded 10 people, local authorities said.

In the southern city of Odesa, six people were wounded in the attack, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. The strikes damaged energy infrastructure, a hospital, a kindergarten, an educational facility and a number of residential buildings, he said.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is counting on quicker deliveries of agreed upon air defense systems from the U.S. and Europe, as well as new pledges of aid to counter Russia’s latest onslaught.

Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down 11 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Defese Ministry said Tuesday. Seven were reportedly destroyed over Russia’s Rostov region, where Gov. Yuri Slyusar confirmed an attack on the coastal city of Taganrog, about 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, in Kyiv's latest long-range attack on Russian war-related facilities.

Ukraine’s military said its drones hit a drone manufacturing facility in Taganrog. The Atlant Aero plant designs, manufactures and tests Molniya drones and components for Orion unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Explosions and a fire were reported at the site, with damage to production buildings confirmed, the General Staff said.

It wasn't possible to independently verify the reports.

Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)