Bolivian President Luis Arce demanded on Wednesday “the immediate lifting of all blocking points” road blocks put in place for 17 days in the country by supporters of former president Evo Morales, who is seeking to return to power.
“There can be no dialogue without the lifting of blockages and strangling pressure measures” the country, Mr. Arce said in a message to the nation. “We therefore demand the immediate lifting of all blocking points”he added.
Supporters of the former president (2006-2019) have been blocking the country’s main roads since October 14 as a sign of support for their leader, targeted by an investigation for the alleged rape of a teenage girl while he was at the head of the country.
His lawyers say the case was already investigated and closed in 2020.
Mr. Morales believes he is the victim of “judicial persecution” orchestrated by the government of President Arce, his former ally and now rival for the candidacy of the ruling party for the 2025 presidential election.
Despite a judgment disqualifying him, the 65-year-old former president wants to stand for election.
On Sunday, he claimed to have been the target of an assassination attempt, described as “staged” by the government.
“If the pressing demand of the Bolivian people is not heard, our government, democratically elected with more than 55% of the votes, will exercise its constitutional powers to safeguard the interests of the Bolivian people”warned President Arce.
However, he did not specify whether he would use the army to clear the roads or even whether he intended to declare a state of emergency, two measures demanded by Mr. Morales’s opponents.
Since the start of the blockades, clashes between police and demonstrators have left at least 70 injured, including 61 police officers and nine civilians, Mr. Arce said.
In total, more than 20 blockades have been reported in the country, most of them in the state of Cochabamba, stronghold of Mr. Morales, a former coca farmer whose supporters are mainly indigenous farmers.
“Material evidence”
These road blockages have exacerbated fuel shortages and led to long lines of vehicles in cities. The prices of basic products have also skyrocketed in the markets.
Mr. Arce estimated the impact of these blockages “at more than 1.7 billion dollars, with terrible consequences for families, suffocating the economy, preventing normal fuel supplies, increasing food prices” .
The prosecutor of the department of Tarija (south), Sandra Gutiérrez, in charge of the investigation targeting Mr. Morales, said on Wednesday that she had gathered “all the clues and some material evidence” in this case, specifying that a possible arrest warrant would be issued “in due time”.
The Tarija public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation at the end of September “rape, smuggling and trafficking in human beings” targeting Mr. Morales.
The first indigenous person to have governed Bolivia would have had a relationship with a fifteen-year-old girl during his mandate with whom he had a daughter in 2016.
Prosecutor Gutiérrez ordered his arrest in September, but the warrant was canceled after a legal appeal in favor of the former president.
In addition to Mr. Morales, the Tarija prosecutor’s office is also investigating the victim’s parents who allegedly deliberately registered their daughter in the “youth movement” of support for Evo Morales in order to obtain from him ” benefits “.
The teenager’s father was arrested in mid-October and placed in preventive detention for four months. Summoned at the same time as Mr. Morales, he did not attend, like him, a summons from the prosecution to be heard in this case.
