Warrant for arrest of Evo Morales issued in Bolivia
Prosecutors in Bolivia’s capital have issued an arrest warrant against the former president Evo Morales, accusing him of sedition and terrorism.
The interior minister, Arturo Murillo, recently brought charges against Morales, alleging he promoted violent clashes that led to 35 deaths during disturbances before and after he left office.
On Wednesday, the minister tweeted a picture of what appeared to be the arrest warrant, with the comment: “FYI Senor [Morales].”
Officials say Morales ordered supporters to blockade cities in order to force out the interim president, Jeanine Áñez, who took over when Morales resigned on 10 November.
Morales, who resigned after a wave of protests and under pressure from police and the military, is now based in Argentina, and has repeatedly denied the charges as a setup. Bolivia’s first indigenous president has described the movement that pressured him to leave as a coup d’état.
Morales said on Tuesday that he would campaign for the presidential candidate of his party in elections expected within the next several months, though a date has not been set. The candidate from Morales’s Movement Toward Socialism party is yet to be chosen, and the former president cannot run in the new elections.
Critics of Morales, who came to power in 2006, had accused him of using fraud to win a fourth straight term in office in the election on 20 October. An audit by the Organization of American States backed up the allegations, saying it found evidence of vote-rigging.
Morales retains a strong following in Bolivia and has an ally in the government of Argentina’s president, Alberto Fernández, who took office two days before the former Bolivian leader arrived in the country.
Bolivia’s interim government has expressed concern that Morales could use Buenos Aires as a campaign headquarters and might plot his return home.