The former president of Bolivia Evo Morales (2006-2019) accused his former ally and current president of the country, Luis Arce, of promoting a “judicial persecution” against him, after news emerged of an investigation against the coca leader for alleged rape of a vulnerable person.
“We have long reported that Luis Arce’s government has decided to become a fascist and anti-popular government. They renounced resolving any differences in a democratic way, in favor of judicial persecution,” Morales wrote in X, according to information from the EFE agency.
On Thursday (3), Bolivia’s Minister of Justice, Cesar Siles, announced that Morales is being investigated for rape of a vulnerable person and human trafficking.
He said that the former president is suspected of having raped a 15-year-old teenager in 2016. The victim became pregnant and the child had Morales’ name registered as the father on her birth certificate, Siles said.
The case’s prosecutor, Sandra Gutierrez, reported that she was removed from the case for asking for the arrest of the former Bolivian president. The detention measure was not complied with because it was rendered ineffective by the Santa Cruz Court.
According to the Bolivian newspaper El Deber, Morales said at a press conference this Friday (4) that he has already been investigated for the episode and that the case has been closed.
“I cannot understand what kind of prosecutor or Minister of Justice we have when this case is closed. Don’t they know that I have already been investigated for this crime?” said Morales, who stated that he was the target of four legal proceedings and accused Arce of wanting to extradite him to the United States.
“In 2020, [a então presidente, Jeanine] Añez, appealing to the Ministry of Justice, has already sued me, investigated me and it has been proven that nothing happened, here is the document, the sentence, of December 10, 2020, in Yacuiba [cidade no sul da Bolívia]”, said the former president, reading a paper that would indicate “rejection” of the case by the Public Ministry.
In September, Morales held a seven-day march through Bolivia to press for his candidacy for president in 2025 and to protest the economic crisis under Arce’s government.
Both are part of the Movement to Socialism (MAS) party, split due to their ambitions to be the party’s candidate in next year’s election.
The coca leader accused his political godson of corruption and deviating from the socialist precepts of the MAS. In October 2023, Arce was expelled from the party at the same party congress in which Morales was acclaimed as a presidential candidate.
Months later, the Constitutional Court of Bolivia declared Morales ineligible, pointing out that the former president could no longer run as a candidate as he had already held the presidency for two terms.
Morales wants the congress in which he was nominated as a MAS candidate to be recognized. On the day the march arrived in La Paz, he gave a 24-hour ultimatum for Arce’s ministers to be fired, but then he changed his mind and said that the deadline was for the current president to resolve the fuel shortage in Bolivia.
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