The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, stated this Thursday (17) that he “will not give in” to Evo Morales, whose supporters have been blocking roads across the country since the beginning of the week.
“We will assert the stability of Bolivians,” Arce said at a protest in the capital, La Paz. “We will not give in to those who want to burn down the country to protect themselves from personal accusations.
He made reference to suspicions that Evo raped and impregnated a teenager in 2015. The leader is the target of an investigation into the case and on Monday (15) he refused to present himself to testify following a subpoena from the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the department of Tarija, in the south.
Failure to appear may lead to an arrest warrant being issued against him. Thus, on Monday, the Unity Pact, an association of organizations linked to Evo, began blocking highways across the territory. Its objective in this is to “protect the freedom, integrity and (prevent) the kidnapping” of the indigenous leader, the entity said in a manifesto.
The accusations against Evo — charges that involve, in addition to the crime of rape, exploitation and human trafficking —, occur at a time when he is competing with Arce for the candidacy for next year’s presidential elections of his party, the MAS (Movimento to Socialism).
The leader’s defense even says that the teenager’s case was archived in 2020 and resurrected to prevent him from running for office.
Evo, who governed Bolivia from 2006 to 2019, announced his pre-candidacy for President in September last year. Then, in December, the Constitutional Court reversed the understanding that presidents and vice-presidents can remain in power for more than two terms, a determination that in theory prevents him from running in 2025.
A decision by the same court in the opposite direction in 2017 had allowed Evo to run in the 2019 elections and, at least according to the administration, emerge victorious.
The opposition did not recognize the result, however, accusing Evo of fraud. The person who took power on an interim basis, then, was Jeanine Áñez, at the time an opposition senator. She ended up sentenced to ten years in prison in 2022 for organizing a coup d’état.
Áñez returned to the dock this Thursday under the same charge — this time, however, in a criminal context. She is accused by the Bolivian Public Ministry of acting as an accomplice of the former governor of the department of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, in a plan to impede the constitutional order and force Evo to leave the government amid the violent protests that preceded his resignation in 2019.
In addition to Áñez and Camacho, five other people will be tried, including former ministers, former commanders and a civil society leader. They are suspected of the crimes of terrorism, criminal association and misuse of influence, and can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
The former senator claims that the trial is illegal and fanciful and asks that her case be judged by the Constitutional Court, with prior authorization from Congress, not by an ordinary court.
