Bolivian prosecutors issue arrest warrant against Evo Morales, accused of raping a teen
The former president says it is part of a persecution campaign by Luis Arce as both men fight for party control ahead of elections next year. Morales supporters in the coca-growing region warn there will be turmoil if he is apprehended
Bolivian prosecutor Sandra Gutiérrez announced on Thursday that an arrest warrant has been issued against former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) to ensure that he provides testimony as part of an investigation into charges of human trafficking and statutory rape leveled against him.
Morales did not show up to testify as he was supposed to do on Thursday. As a result Gutiérrez, of the prosecutor’s office in the southern department of Tarija, issued an arrest warrant. Morales is currently in another area of the country, the Chapare, surrounded by his loyal coca growers, who have threatened to “set the country on fire” if their leader is arrested.
“Inventing accusations, twisting the laws and with the complicity of hired assassins of justice, they intend to arrest us and end our lives. The objective is to dismantle the Bolivian popular movement,” wrote the former president on X. “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.”
According to the lawsuit, in 2016, a 57-year-old Morales had a daughter with a 15-year-old and legally registered the child a year later. It is also claimed that he obtained access to the teenager in exchange for granting political favors to her parents. For this reason it has been considered a case of aggravated statutory rape with incitement to prostitution, which makes it easier for the Prosecutor’s Office to act. In Bolivia, statutory rape is a private crime and is only investigated when there is a complaint from the victim or her parents. On the other hand, human trafficking can be investigated ex officio by the state.
The parents of the teen were also summoned to testify and failed to do so, and they will be apprehended. One of Morales’ lawyers, Jorge Pérez, pointed out that this case was “stillborn” because there is no complaint from the alleged victim, which is why a prosecutor rejected the lawsuit back in 2019. According to the former president, it is “clearly about political persecution,” both in 2019, when Jeanine Áñez was in office, and now. “Lucho [Arce, president of Bolivia] is the same as Áñez. Lucho is Áñez,” he declared.
Prosecutor Gutiérrez had already issued a similar order on September 26, but without notifying the former president and incurring in other procedural flaws. This led a constitutional judge to annul Gutiérrez’s order and the attorney general, Juan Lanchipa, to dismiss her from her post.
After these initial triumphs by the former president, the case was reassembled with the support of the Arce administration. A judge ordered the reinstatement of Gutiérrez, who resumed her post and immediately summoned Morales to testify. In the end, he did not show up, arguing that the actions of the Prosecutor’s Office did not have the approval of a juez de garantías (a judge responsible for procedural safeguards). He also argued, through his lawyers, that the process should not take place in Tarija, where the alleged victim lives, but in Villa Tunari, in the Chapare, his home.
The Chapare is one of Bolivia’s coca-growing areas and the political stronghold of Morales, who left there in 2006 to become president of the country and who continues to be the main leader of the peasants who live there. These have warned that “something serious is going to happen in Bolivia”, and added: “We are not going to allow them to touch, and even worse, to imprison Evo.” If so, they said, there will be “insurgency and convulsion,” according to their leader, Dieter Mendoza.
The accusation against and possible arrest of Morales is part of the war between him and Arce for the candidacy of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) for next year’s elections. After a protest by Morales and his adherents against the government they had previously supported, which took place in September, the executive initiated a judicial offensive with four legal proceedings against its former “historical leader,” among them that of rape.
Morales countered with an accusation against Arce for the alleged sexual abuse of a woman who appeared before the press to make her complaint, accompanied by one of the most relevant opposition lawmakers.
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