Morales has been facing multiple charges since 2020. A second arrest warrant was already issued for him.
A Bolivian judge ordered the arrest of former president Evo Morales on Friday. The decision followed his failure to appear for questioning regarding his possible detention. As of 2020, Morales faces multiple charges, including sexual abuse of an underage girl. TASR writes about it based on a report by the AFP agency.
Sixty-five-year-old Morales is currently being investigated for rape, human trafficking and smuggling in connection with an alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl with whom he allegedly fathered a daughter in 2016. In December, a second arrest warrant was issued for the ex-president in the same case.
The state prosecutor’s office in Bolivia demands his placement in preventive detention for six months. According to Morales, the charges are part of a conspiracy to prevent him from making a political comeback. Thousands of his followers blocked several roads in protest from mid-October to early November in order to prevent his arrest. They also managed to hold at least 200 Bolivian soldiers hostage during the autumn demonstrations.
On Monday, several thousand supporters of Morales arrived in the capital, La Paz, after a four-day march of nearly 100 kilometers to protest economic hardship. The demonstrators demanded the resignation of the current president, Luis Arce. Morales became Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006. He remained in office until 2019.
