Former president Evo Morales at a press conference in Cochabamba, on October 8, 2024. REUTERS/Patricia Pinto
The former president of Bolivia Evo Morales was summoned to testify before the Public Ministry in the investigation that is being followed for the alleged pregnancy of a teenager during his administration as head of state. Accused of the crimes of trafficking and statutory rape, he must appear in the city of Tarija (southern Bolivia) on Thursday at 10 a.m. local time.
In a press conference this Tuesday, Morales assured that he will take on his defense but did not confirm whether he will appear before the commission of prosecutors to give his testimony. “I’m not going to escape (…) now I have to defend myself legally with a team of lawyers. Last night they called me, there are 200 lawyers willing to defend me for free,” he said.
The also head of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and his lawyers consider that this case is part of a “judicial persecution” by the Government, in retaliation for the march carried out in mid-September against the administration of Luis Arce. However, neither Evo Morales nor his defense have denied the commission of the crime.
“We are going to defend ourselves, I defended myself against all the presidents,” said the former president, who reported that four cases were opened against him in recent weeks. Along with him, two other people are being prosecuted in the case of trafficking and statutory rape, it is presumed that they are the parents of the minor.
Police from the Special Force to Fight Crime posted the summons to testify at Evo Morales’ home in Cochabamba on the morning of Tuesday, October 8, 2024. They later gave him a copy at the office of the coca growers federation. Photo: Duty
On Wednesday night, October 2, it was publicly known that there was an arrest warrant against Evo Morales for an investigation that began in 2019 during the interim government of Jeanine Añez in which he is accused of statutory rape and trafficking.
According to the complaint on which the case is based, the former president had a daughter with a teenager in 2016, when she was 16 years old and he was 57. The birth certificate of their daughter was issued two years later in the town of Yacuiba, bordering Argentina, and constitutes one of the evidence in the case.
The arrest warrant reveals that the young woman was linked to the former president since she was at least 15 years old and with the complicity of her parents, who would have obtained political benefits in exchange.
The arrest warrant was annulled after a Santa Cruz judge granted an action for freedom in favor of Morales filed by his lawyers. The case was later declared judicially reserved to protect the minor involved but remains under investigation.
Sandra Gutiérrez was a prosecutor in the department of Tarija and issued the arrest warrant against Evo Morales. Photo: Oxygen
On Tuesday, four police officers from the Trafficking and Trafficking Division of the Special Force to Fight Crime (Felcc) personally notified the former president of the summons to the Public Ministry. According to Freddy Medinacelli, director of Felcc, at the beginning “there was not a very good reception” of the document. However, he reported that Morales received it, signed it and the procedure was complied with.
Given the call to testify, leaders of the Coordinator of the Six Federations of the Tropics of Cochabamba warned of “convulsion and insurgency” if the coca leader is arrested. “What is going to happen is serious in Bolivia. We do not guarantee anything, we are supporting the bases, (it will be) the Government’s responsibility if there is an insurgency and upheaval. We are not going to allow them to play, worse than imprisoning Evo,” said Dieter Mendoza, leader of one of the federations in statements collected by Red Uno.
The accusation against Evo Morales has generated repercussions even at the international level. The People’s Group, made up of left-wing leaders, issued a statement in support of the former president in which it describes the investigation as a “lawfare” campaign against him. In response, the Madrid Forum, made up of right-wing parties and organizations, accused the Puebla Group of endorsing “pedophilia.”
The case occurs in the midst of the internal crisis in the Movement Towards Socialism in which the two political leaders, Luis Arce and Evo Morales, dispute control of the party and the candidacy of the 2025 presidential elections.
