A Bolivian court has issued an arrest warrant for former president Evo Morales, who is accused of statutory r*pe and human traff!cking after failing to testify this week.
Morales is alleged to have fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2016 while in office at the age of 57.
The lawsuit claims that the girl’s parents agreed to the relationship for unspecified political favors.
Morales, who resigned amid election-related unrest, claims these accusations are fabricated to weaken the popular movement.
According to the lawsuit, the victim was a member of Morales’s political youth group in 2015 when the alleged relationship began.
The girl reportedly gave birth to a daughter in 2016, and Morales is accused of being the father.
He faces potential arrest for not complying with a summons from the prosecutor’s office in Tarija.
The victim’s parents also failed to testify despite being summoned and may be apprehended.
In Bolivia, statutory rape is investigated only upon a complaint from the victim or her parents.
Morales’s lawyer argues the investigation is illegal, citing a 2020 probe into similar claims that was closed due to insufficient evidence.
The Tarija prosecutor has expanded the case to include human trafficking and smuggling, suspecting the parents enrolled the girl in Morales’s youth wing for political and personal gain.
Morales, elected as Bolivia’s first Indigenous president in 2006, claims the allegations are fabricated by his rival, current president Luis Arce, to undermine him.
Morales stated, “The traitor government has launched a judicial war, criminalized social protest, and persecuted the political opposition.”
He compared Arce to former president Jeanine Áñez, stating they are the same.
“The government’s actions are a desperate response to their own crisis and lack of electoral prospects,” Morales commented on Twitter/X, accusing the administration of following U.S. directives.
Morales maintains his opponents are discrediting him for political reasons and urges the government not to interfere with his “family.”