Bolivia issued an arrest warrant for ex-president Evo Morales for fomenting protests, which he denies.
LA PAZ: Bolivian prosecutors on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for former socialist president Evo Morales, accusing him of fomenting recent protests that paralysed the country.
The enormous anti-government demonstrations in May and June caused severe fuel, food and medicine shortages. The movement started with workers and Indigenous communities voicing grievances over Bolivia’s worst economic crisis in decades, but escalated to demand the resignation of US-backed President Rodrigo Paz, who has accused Morales of orchestrating the unrest.
Attorney General Roger Mariaca said the warrant was related to an investigation into dozens of roadblocks erected during that period. The probe stemmed from an “armed uprising” and “terrorism” complaint filed by a right-wing group of civic leaders and businesses against Morales, trade unionist Mario Argollo and Indigenous figure Vicente Salazar. A section of the government later joined the complaint.
President Paz has also accused Morales, who hails from the coca-growing Chapare region, of drug trafficking without providing evidence.
“They will not intimidate us,” Morales said on X. “They seek to hold us responsible for the social mobilizations to conceal the true drama in Bolivia: a profound social and economic crisis.”
Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous leader, is in hiding in Chapare to escape separate charges of trafficking a minor. He is accused of having relations with a 15-year-old girl with whom he allegedly fathered a child while in power. The teenager’s parents allegedly consented for benefits. Morales denies the allegations.
Paz previously said he was planning an operation in Chapare. He quelled unrest by declaring a state of emergency in June, allowing him to deploy the army and outlaw demonstrations.
He took office last year on a promise to revive the economy after two decades of socialist rule, but his cost-cutting programme met stiff opposition from trade unions, farmers and Indigenous organisations.
Morales believes Paz’s neoliberal policies are “stoking a civil war,” he told AFP in June. “There is no reason to intervene,” he said of a potential government operation in Chapare.
