A Bolivian court has issued an arrest warrant for a former president accused of statutory rape and human trafficking after he failed to testify this week.
Evo Morales, in office between 2006 and 2019, is accused of fathering a child with an unnamed 15-year-old child while in office in 2016, when he was 57-years-old.
The girl’s parents are said to have agreed to the relationship in return for unspecified ‘political favours’, the lawsuit claims.
Morales, who resigned amid unrest over disputed election results, claimed opponents were ‘inventing accusations’ to ‘dismantle the… popular movement’.
He remains locked in a battle with incumbent president Lucho Arce for the candidacy of the Movimiento al Socialismo party in a country ailing from unrest.
Morales, the leader of the ruling party, assured his followers that he will “win this legal battle” and that there are 200 lawyers willing to defend him “free of charge”
Under President Arce (pictured), the MAS divided into factions of the Arcistas and Evistas
A protestor holds a sign that reads ‘justice for the girls’ during a demonstration on Thursday
A man with a makeshift riot shield attends a demonstration supporting Morales in September
According to the lawsuit, the unnamed victim was a member of his political youth guard in 2015, when he is claimed to have started a sexual relationship with her.
In 2016, the girl gave birth to a daughter, whom Morales is accused of fathering.
He could face arrest for refusing the summons by the prosecutor’s office in the southern Tarija department.
The victim’s parents also failed to testify after being summoned and will be apprehended, too, as a result.
In Bolivia, statutory rape is a private crime only investigated when there is a complaint from the victim of her parents.
Morales’ lawyer said his client considered the probe “illegal,” arguing that an investigation in 2020 into the same claims was closed for lack of evidence.
The Tarija prosecutor who reopened the case expanded it to include human trafficking and smuggling over suspicions that the girl’s parents enrolled her in his youth wing with the aim of political advancement and personal gain.
Morales, who was elected Bolivia’s first Indigenous president in 2006, claims the allegations were fabricated by the government of his arch-rival, current president Luis Arce, to try to discredit him.
“The traitor government has unleashed a judicial war, criminalized social protest and persecuted the political opposition to try to outlaw us,” Morales said.
‘Lucho [Arce, incumbent president] is the same as [former president, Jeanine] Áñez. Lucho is Áñez’.
‘Everything is a product of the desperation of the government, which has no answer to the crisis and has no electoral possibilities.’
‘This is further proof that this is a right-wing government that does everything to comply with the dictates of the White House,’ he said in a rant on Twitter/X.
Morales insists that his opponents are intentionally trying to discredit him for political reasons, and has called on the government not to interfere with his ‘family’.
Former President Evo Morales holds a press conference, in Cochabamba, Bolivia October 8
Supporters of Bolivia’s President Luis Arce light flares in Plaza Murillo during a demonstration
Riot police ride through a cloud of tear gas smoke after a mobilization of supporters of Evo Morales on September 23, in La Paz
Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales chats during a meeting with social sectors to determine new measures against the government of President Luis Arce
Last month, Morales led a week-long march by thousands of mostly Indigenous Bolivians on the capital La Paz to protest Arce’s policies.
The former coca grower was highly popular in the Andean country until he tried to bypass the constitution to seek a fourth term.
He was forced to resign after losing the support of the military following an election marked by allegations of fraud.
Arce served as his finance minister for more than a decade but the pair later fell out.
Morales sensationally called on the Pope to help mediate the crisis gripping the country when it erupted in late 2019.
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