LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Former President Evo Morales A Bolivian man claimed to have survived an assassination attempt after unidentified gunmen opened fire on his car on Sunday. He was not injured and there was no immediate confirmation of the attack from authorities.

Morales claimed the shots were fired while he was driving in Bolivia’s coca leaf-growing region of Chapare, the former president’s rural stronghold, as residents blockaded the country’s main east-west highway for the past two weeks.

Barricades protest the actions of Morales’ supporters Condemning attempts at sabotage by President Luis Arce His former mentor and bitter political rival isolated cities and disrupted food and fuel supplies.

Morales, who ruled Bolivia between 2006 and 2019, emerged unharmed from the alleged attack on Sunday and explained what happened in his usual calm demeanor on his weekly radio show.

He told the radio host that as he was leaving home to go to the radio station, hooded men shot at his car at least 14 times, wounding the driver.

Morales was quick to blame his successor. President ArceHe is fighting to become the ruling socialist party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election. He claimed that Arce’s government resorted to physical force because it could not defeat him politically.

“Arce will be the worst president in history,” Morales said. “Shooting a former president was the final straw.”

Officials in Arce’s government did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.

Cellphone video circulating online shows Morales’ driver bleeding from the back of his head. As the vehicle swerved off the road and a woman’s voice shouted “Duck!” Morales can be seen holding a phone to his ear in the passenger seat.

In the images, it can be seen that the windshield of the car was cracked by at least three bullets and the rear window was shattered. Morales can be heard saying, “Papacho was shot in the head,” referring to his driver.

“They’re shooting at us,” Morales continues over the phone. “They shot the car’s tire and it stopped on the road.”

Morales’ claim deepens political tensions in Bolivia at a volatile moment for the cash-strapped Andean nation of 12 million people.

In June, a rogue general allegedly attempted a coup. Last month Morales led a massive march Against the government’s mismanagement of the economy, which quickly escalated into street clashes with pro-government gangs. Imported goods are decreasing, prices are increasing. Drivers wait for hours to refuel at gas stations. The gap between official exchange rates and black market exchange rates is widening.

Earlier this month, the dispute between Morales and Arce spilled into the courts when Bolivian prosecutors launched an investigation into accusations that Morales fathered a 15-year-old girl in 2016 and classified their relationship as statutory rape.

Morales denied the allegations as politically motivated and refused to testify in the case. The former president has been hiding in the Chapare region of central Bolivia since reports emerged of a possible arrest warrant against him; here supportive coca growers kept watchful guard to protect him from arrest.

President Arce accuses Morales of trying to undermine his administration to further his own ambitions.

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DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina