Bolivian socialist former president Evo Morales threatened this weekend to order his loyalists to blockade the nation’s roads, causing daily multimillion-dollar losses to the country’s economy, should he be arrested as part of an ongoing probe into accusations of human trafficking and statutory rape.
“We have to mobilize. Possibly, illegally and unjustly they can arrest me, but they will never arrest you. Possibly they have plans against our lives, but the process of change will never end,” Morales told sympathizers during a speech on Saturday marking Columbus Day, which Bolivia celebrates as the “Day of Decolonization.”
Roadblocks and similar blockade tactics serve to paralyze the local economies of the target locations. They make it difficult for residents to make it to work, for people to shop, and – critically – block trucks from bringing in food, medicine, and other key goods to supply stores.
Morales is being investigated on accusations of human trafficking and statutory rape after evidence was found in the southern city of Tarija indicating Morales had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl in 2016, at a time when Morales was serving his third presidential term. In 2018, a birth certificate in Tarija was found listing Morales as the father of a child born of the same minor at a time when she was 16. The child is now eight years old, according to state media.
The investigation started in 2019 but remained “frozen” until its reactivation in early October led by Bolivian prosecutor Sandra Gutiérrez, who issued an arrest warrant against Morales that was immediately overturned by Attorney General Juan Lanchipa. Lanchipa fired Gutiérrez immediately after she issued the arrest warrant, but was reinstated as prosecutor days later thanks to a ruling issued by a constitutional judge.
Following the reopening of the investigation, Morales “bunkered” himself in the Chapare, Cochabamba, a region considered a political bastion of Morales and his sympathizers, where the socialist former president remains under the protection of loyalists, including local coca leaf farmers.
The Tarija local Prosecutor’s Office summoned Morales to testify on Thursday, but he did not appear. Gutiérrez told reporters on Thursday that a new arrest warrant is being prepared against Morales in response to his refusal to testify.
The prosecutors will also issue arrest warrants for Emeterio Vargas Mamani and Idelsa Pozo Saavedra, the parents of the minor that Morales allegedly raped. A “migration alert” was issued by Bolivian authorities against Morales on Monday to prevent him from leaving the country.
The probe against Morales occurs amidst a lengthy power struggle over control of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism Party (MAS) between Morales and current socialist President Luis Arce, a former protegé of Morales now at odds with his former mentor.
The local newspaper La Razón reported on Tuesday that pro-Morales individuals set up blockades around the Cochabamba region on Monday and that, by Tuesday, the region was “isolated” from the east and west roads that connect to it, boasting at least five roadblocks in three departments.
The blockade is reportedly led by the People’s General Staff, a pro-Morales group, which claims that the blockade is to protest Arce’s government. La Razón indicated that the blockades were rushed in response to the ongoing probe against Morales.
Similarly, pro-Morales forces reportedly blocked roads in southwestern city of Parotani amidst clashes with the local police, attacking the police with firecrackers, dynamite sticks, and stones, to which the police responded with tear gas.
Bolivian Minister of Government Eduardo Del Castillo told reporters on Tuesday morning that the blockades set up by pro-Morales loyalists will be taken down according to requirements and intelligence reports. Del Castillo claimed that Morales only grows politically “through victimization” and asserted that Morales is looking for a confrontation between the police and his sympathizers, who are “forced to generate these blockade points through threats and a union dictatorship.”
“Each blockade point must be [analyzed] based on an intelligence report and each point is going to be intervened according to the corresponding requirements and the reports we have. Each point must be worked in a different way,” Del Castillo said.
The Bolivian minister stated that, according to information received by the government, locals in Cochabamba “do not want any more blockades, they no longer want to be carted away as if they were animals, these people want to go out to work, they want to produce.”
Bolivian Minister of the Presidency María Nela Prada warned on Sunday that the pro-Morales blockades would cause losses of at least $120 million per day to the Bolivian economy and described the blockades as a “a stab in the back to the economy of the most humble.”
Morales is also leading attempts to once again run for president of Bolivia in 2025 despite having exceeded the two term limits established by the nation’s constitution. Morales already forced his way to a third term through dubious court rulings, so should he take office again, he would begin a fourth term. Morales accused Arce’s “treasonous government” of wanting to disqualify him from running in 2025 through legal proceedings and allegedly “promoting” violence against him.
Pro-Morales lawmakers also appeared to respond to the ongoing investigations against Morales by supporting accusations made by 24-year-old Bolivian woman Jessica Villarroel, who accused President Arce of sexual harassment and abuse of power for allegedly engaging in a six-month long extramarital affair with her in recent years.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
