Bolivia: Sieges intensify to protect Evo Morales | Supporters of the former president are focusing protests in the city of Cochabamba

Supporters of former President Evo Morales intensified road blockades in Bolivia this Tuesday to defend the Bolivian leader.He was tried in 2015 for allegedly abusing a minor during his tenure. Roadblocks were concentrated in the central region of Cochabamba, which recorded four checkpoints during the day, and a fifth on the region’s border with economic eastern Santa Cruz. The machine of the country. MorelsWHO Part of a prosecution pursued by the government is the assurance that the case was prosecuted Louis Arce, former minister and current adversary, Accommodation is in Chapare, a cocoa-growing provinceSources from his party told AFP agency.

Cuts, gas and 13 prisoners

With stones and dirt, protesters blocked roads linking Cochabamba, where Morales has his political base, with the cities of La Paz, Sucre and Santa Cruz, the state Bolivian Highways Authority (ABC) said. Skipped three routes on Monday. Clashes with police were recorded for a second day in Barotani, a town on the route between Cochabamba and La Paz.

The protestors pelted stones, burst firecrackers and set fire to the protest. The police fired teargas shells to disperse the crowd, but could not block the roads. Many who traveled by bus through Barotani had to wade through stones, dirt and tires, carrying packages and suitcases on their backs, amid stones, dirt and tires used by protesters to block the road. The state-owned Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) condemned this 300 tanker trucks are stationed to supply fuel to various cities on roads due to obstructions.

From Barotani, the head of agriculture, Ricardo Cardoso, said: “If they touch Brother Evo, this siege will be even worse; two months, three months, until the end of the year.” At least 13 people were arrested for possession of explosive devices and obstructing police operations, the government said. “evista” MAS deputy, Pacífico Choque, who accompanied the arrested persons who were later released, described the incident as an armed case as the Public Ministry could not find any corroborating evidence against them.

“It’s a completely assembled process.”

Government Minister, Eduardo del CastilloEach blocking point is analyzed separately before it is discharged and Morales accused him of leading a “union dictatorship.” It drives people to the streets. In addition to Morales’ “defense of freedom and integrity,” the Unity Pact, a group of organizations associated with the 64-year-old former president, rallied against the economic crisis created by a shortage of dollars and fuel.

The solidarity agreement stipulated that any dialogue on “repeal of the Supreme Decree establishing an environmental moratorium” should be present at the table, which emerged as an emergency response to the devastation caused by the wildfires. “These strategies form the basis of any democratic, healthy and open dialogue in the face of the deep crisis our economy is going through,” said Agriculture President Enrique Mamani.

Humberto Claros, general secretary of the Single Trade Union Confederation of Agricultural Workers, said “the government will solve these problems through honest negotiations or it will leave the country decisively.” Claros accused the government of being behind the “severe judicial political persecution” against the former president. “It’s rude to do it against brother Evo Morales“This was a completely staged, brutal, darkly planned act,” the leader said.

Groups related to Morales conditioned any talks with the executive on their guaranteeing that the party congress recognized Morales as president of the MAS and naming him as a candidate in 2025, and on eliminating processes against it. The government considers the former president’s blockade “for political and personal reasons” and has warned that the move hurts the popular economy that Morales and his followers claim to protect.

Amid the conflict between Arce and Morales, the president surprisingly decided to renew the leadership of the National Police, including its commander and twenty officers. Augusto Juan Russo replaces Alvaro Jose Alvarez as team captain on an interim basis. During his inauguration speech, Russo highlighted his “strong commitment to the Bolivian people and government” and declared that he would condone “any attempt to break the established order”.

A complaint against the Evo

Morales, the first indigenous leader to rule Bolivia between 2006 and 2019, is being investigated for “rape, human trafficking and kidnapping”. Tarija’s department’s attorney’s office points out that Morales had a relationship with a minor in 2015, when she was 15, and the two had a daughter a year later.

Last Thursday, Morales refused to appear at the public ministry’s summons. As he refused, Sandra Gutierrez, the lawyer in the case, warned that an arrest warrant could be issued against the former president. Gutierrez had already issued an arrest warrant against Morales at the end of September, but the court overturned his decision after an appeal.

The prosecutor’s office announced it would order Morales’ re-arrest to compel him to testify, although it was not known if the document had been served. The government minister, Eduardo del Castillo, said this Tuesday that Bolivian police had not received an arrest warrant against Morales, and that when it did, the security forces would comply.

The minister clarified, “If ever we get an arrest warrant against anyone in our country, The Bolivian police did not have to question whether the order was good or badThe police must comply with the documents they receive,” and added: “The Bolivian police do not deliberate, they do not decide, what the country’s lawyers and judges decide and comply with.”

On Friday, the police arrested the father of the statutory rape victim. According to the prosecutor’s office, the parents placed their daughter in Morales’ “juvenile custody” with the “sole purpose of obtaining political leverage and benefits,” which would constitute human trafficking and smuggling. If the process goes ahead, the former president could face up to 20 years in prison.

Become an opponent of the government of his former minister Luis Arce, Morales calls this case another lie and remembers that the same case was already investigated in 2020 and archived by justice. According to Morales, the Arce government reopened the case to prevent him from appearing. For the 2025 presidential election.