Following the OAS findings in early November 2019 — which concluded that Morales won the election amid a long list of electoral irregularities — Morales resigned from the presidency and fled to Mexico, then Argentina, where he stayed through Monday morning. Morales’ candidacy itself was unconstitutional, as he had already served three terms in office. Morales forced the Supreme Court to declare that the Bolivian constitution’s term limits were a violation of his human rights, forcing his way onto the ballot.
Morales fled the country along with most of his cabinet and other senior officials, leaving a conservative senator, Jeanine Áñez, as the highest-ranked person in the chain of command. Áñez concluded her term as interim president last week, having fulfilled her mandate to organize free and fair elections. MAS candidate Luis Arce won the October 2020 election, prompting Morales to return.
During Áñez’s term, the brief conservative government filed a case against Morales at The Hague for crimes against humanity, offering evidence that Morales had attempted to cause mass starvation in cities while abroad to force a return to power. “Don’t let food into the cities,” a voice the Bolivian government claimed was Morales can be heard saying on audio of a phone wiretap allegedly of a conversation Morales had with a union leader shortly after he fled the country. Morales also publicly called for the creation of violent socialist terrorist cells to enforce his will while he was gone.
Bolivian prosecutors also found evidence that Morales had committed statutory rape — a birth certificate listing him as the father of an infant born to a 16-year-old girl.
Morales has denied the charges and Arce rapidly announced his government would not pursue them. The MAS government has instead begun legal proceedings against Áñez for “genocide” against socialists, accusations she denies.
Morales, arrived in Uyuni Monday night on his way to his native Cochabamba, where he is expected to return to political agitation. Morales announced that he planned on organizing a socialist caravan to accompany him to Cochabamba, according to Bolivia’s Jornada…
Continue Reading