Arrest Warrant Issued for Former Bolivian President Morales in '15-Year-Old Girl Human Trafficking' Case

Arrest Warrant Issued for 15-Year-Old Girl on Human Trafficking Charges
Morales' Side Claims "Attack to Prevent Presidential Candidacy"

The Bolivian prosecution has issued an arrest warrant for former Bolivian President Evo Morales (65) on charges of human trafficking a 15-year-old girl for sexual purposes. On the 17th (local time), foreign media including the British Guardian reported that the Bolivian prosecution has been investigating former President Morales for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl in 2015.

The Bolivian prosecutor's office has issued an arrest warrant for Evo Morales (65), former president of Bolivia, on charges of human trafficking involving a 15-year-old girl for sexual purposes. AFP·Yonhap News

According to the report, Prosecutor Sandra Gutierrez revealed that the arrest warrant for former President Morales was already issued last October. Prosecutor Gutierrez stated that since the Cochabamba region, where Morales resides, is protected by coca (the raw material for cocaine) growers, the safety of police officers could be threatened during the execution of the warrant, so it has not yet been carried out. The warrant is valid for six months.

The prosecution believes that the victim's parents sent their 15-year-old daughter in 2015 to a 'youth organization' run by then-President Morales to gain political advantage. The victim gave birth to a child the following year in 2016, and claimed that Morales was the father. However, Morales strongly denies these allegations, claiming they are political attacks by the current government to prevent his presidential candidacy. In a post on his X (formerly Twitter), he criticized, "Current President Luis Arce has engaged in a legal battle to hand me over to the United States as 'spoils'," and added, "Like many leftist presidents in Latin America, crimes against me are being fabricated."

Previously, in 2005, Morales became the first indigenous president and a coca farmer, a traditional Bolivian plant. He won the presidential elections in 2009 and 2014 but failed to secure a fourth term in the 2019 election amid allegations of electoral fraud and went into exile abroad. He returned with the help of President Arce from the same party, who won the 2020 election, but they became adversaries during the process of seeking to regain power. Former President Morales has been continuing to rally supporters by organizing anti-government marches and strongly expressing his intention to run in next year's presidential election. However, due to a decision by the Bolivian Constitutional Court regarding the limit on the number of presidential terms, he is currently unable to run in the election.