Chaos descended on the floor of the Bolivia Parliament on Tuesday (June 8) when opposing politicians traded punches, pulled hair and rolled around the floor of Bolivia’s legislative assembly, during a debate over the detention of former interim president Jeanine Áñez.
The dramatic brawl broke out between opposition politician Henry Montero and a member of the ruling socialist MAS party, Antonio Colque. The latter was visibly injured after the fighting.
“They all grabbed me, pulled me by my back,” Colque told reporters in La Paz after the fight. “We can’t allow this.”
Their parties disagree on whether Áñez led a legal transitional government.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5cRiVwVjg0
In 2019, Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, resigned after 13 years in office, amid pressure from some of the public, the armed forces and opposition leaders who accused him of stealing the election a month earlier.
In October, after an 11-month caretaker government, Morales’ former economy minister Luis Arce won
won 55 percent of the vote, paving the way for Morales to return home from exile.
Jeanine Anez, a conservative lawmaker who took the helm of the interim government, was sent to prison after authorities arrested her on allegations she helped foment a 2019 coup against Morales.
The parliament was reviewing the legitimacy of this history.
Footage from the fight captures Colque as he rains punches on Montero while two onlookers frantically try to pull the feuding men apart.
With reporting by Reuters, Telesur
