CARACOLLO, Bolivia, Sept 18, (AP): Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marching in support of Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales clashed on Tuesday with counterprotesters blocking their way, a stark sign of an escalating power struggle in the volatile Andean nation. In his most brazen show of force yet against current President Luis Arce, Morales sent word to his followers to mobilize what he called a "March to Save Bolivia,” a 190-kilometer (118 mile)-trek from the small village of Caracollo to the capital, La Paz, denouncing the government of his protege-turned-bitter rival.

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. The march in solidarity with him began peacefully Tuesday morning, but turned violent hours later when hundreds of counterprotesters, armed with tear gas bombs, stones and firecrackers, spread across the highway waiting to confront the nearly 10,000 marchers. Some of them set a giant effigy of Morales on fire.

The Morales supporters, raising multi-colored Indigenous flags and chanting against Bolivia's economic crisis, surged toward them, using slingshots to pelt their adversaries with rocks as police in pickup trucks and on motorbikes looked on. Morales' followers soon forced the counterprotesters to retreat, their shouts - "Evo, Bolivia wants you back!” - drowning out the pro-Arce activists who chanted, "Evo, you traitor, your time has passed.” A top official in Arce's government, Eduardo Del Castillo, told reporters that 13 people were injured in the scuffles, including three police officers.

Associated Press reporters saw some pro-Morales marchers chasing the counterdemonstrators into the rolling Andean highlands on either side of the highway, beating them with sticks, pushing them to the ground and kicking them. Arce and his ministers accused Morales of trying to orchestrate a coup. Using exaggerated, apocalyptic rhetoric, Del Castillo denounced Morales’ protest as a "death march” and said that the former president seeks "to destroy democracy in Bolivia and end the lives of Bolivians.” He denied that police used force against peaceful protesters, insisting that officers were attacked first.