(La Paz) Former President of Bolivia Evo Morales on Friday described as “lies” the rape accusations for which an investigation was opened, believing that justice had already closed this case dating back to 2015.
On Thursday, Justice Minister César Siles said he had “read, with indignation, serious offenses which remain unpunished (…) a girl raped at the age of 15, 16”.
“As a result of this rape, (the mother) gave birth to a daughter and the father, recognized in the birth certificate, (is) Mr. Evo Morales Ayma,” he added.
Reacting on Wednesday to extracts from an arrest warrant targeting him, then canceled, affirming that Mr. Morales had had a relationship with a teenager with whom he had a daughter, the ex-president reacted on the affair: “This does not surprise me and does not worry me. All neoliberal governments, including the current one, have threatened, persecuted, imprisoned me and tried to kill me.”
Evo Morales, who governed the Andean country between 2006 and 2019 and then favored the electoral triumph of Luis Arce, who had been his Minister of Economy, is today in open conflict with his successor in view of the presidential election of August 2025.
The two leaders are competing for the leadership of the ruling left party and its nomination.
Mr. Morales wants to run even though the courts have forbidden him to do so and is trying, with the support of a wing of his party, to get the courts to give in.