An arrest warrant for “human trafficking of a minor” was issued against the former socialist president of Bolivia, Evo Morales (2006-2019), for having had a relationship with a 15-year-old girl with whom he had a daughter in 2016, the prosecution said.
“It is appropriate to issue an arrest warrant”declared prosecutor Sandra Gutiérrez during a press conference. The public prosecutor specified that the arrest warrant, made public on Monday December 16, had been issued two months ago, on October 16. Mme Gutiérrez explained that she had not mentioned the affair before because she is “very complex”due to the fact that it involves a former president, who has repeatedly denied the accusations.
She also underlined that, two days before issuing this arrest warrant, the supporters of the ex-president set up roadblocks which lasted twenty-four days, to protest against what they consider be a “judicial persecution” against him. Despite the protest, the police tried several times to arrest Mr. Morales, a refugee in the state of Chapare, his political stronghold where coca is grown, said Mr.me Gutierrez. More “it was impossible to execute the arrest warrant against this citizen, because (…) many police officers were victims of attacks and assassination attempts by the blockaders”said the prosecutor.
Ms. Gutiérrez said the police presented“countless” reports justifying the impossibility of executing the arrest warrant and that it had even been emphasized that “the lives not only of police officers, [mais] also of citizens, was at stake ». The prosecutor indicated that Mr. Morales faced a sentence of “ten to fifteen years” of imprisonment.
Former president denounces “judicial persecution”
The facts date back to 2015, when the former leader of coca producers governed Bolivia. The prosecution's thesis is that the parents of the minor enrolled her in the “youth care” of Morales “for the sole purpose of climbing the political ladder and obtaining advantages (…) in exchange for their minor daughter”. For these facts, the Public Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Morales and the mother of the alleged victim for the crime of “aggravated human trafficking”.
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Although Mr. Morales previously dismissed the complaint as being based on facts that were investigated in 2020 under the crime of “misappropriation of a minor”the prosecution is now focusing on alleged human trafficking. This is the second arrest warrant issued against Mr. Morales in the same case.
Prosecutor Gutiérrez had already ordered his arrest in September, but a legal appeal filed by the Aymara leader's defense made it possible to cancel it. Mr. Morales' lawyers say the case was already investigated and closed in 2020. In the midst of fighting for the left's candidacy in the 2025 elections, Morales claimed that this investigation was a « lawfare » (“judicial persecution”) led by the government of Luis Arce, his former ally and now rival.
The former president governed the Andean country between 2006 and 2019 and then favored the electoral triumph of Luis Arce, who had been his economy minister. Today in conflict, the two leaders are fighting over the leadership of the left-wing party in power and the candidacy of this formation for the presidential elections of August 2025.
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