The Bolivian justice lifted Monday, October 26 an arrest warrant against former Bolivian President Evo Morales, exiled in Argentina, just a week after the election to the presidency of his political heir Luis Arce.
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"His rights have been violated, mainly his rights of defense because he was not duly summoned," announced the president of the court of La Paz, Jorge Quino.
The office of the Attorney General of Bolivia had requested on July 6 the prosecution of the former president (2006-2019) for sedition and terrorism.
A request for pre-trial detention had been requested.
The right-wing government, which has ensured the transition since Morales resigned in December 2019, had increased the accusations against him, including that of having had an alleged affair with a minor, with whom he would have had a child.
Morals still in exile
President of the movement towards socialism (MAS), the party created by Evo Morales in 1997, Luis Arce was elected in the first round on October 18.
Since then, the question of the possible return to the country of the first indigenous president of Bolivia (2006-2019) has hovered.
On Monday morning, Morales admitted that his return was not his responsibility.
"Comrades ask me to come to the investiture" of the new elected president, but "the social movements (unions, editor's note) are discussing it", he said.
"They are the ones who will decide," he said, ignoring the ongoing legal proceedings.
He also assured to exclude any return to politics under the government of Luis Arce, aspiring to devote himself to his union activities in his stronghold of Cochabamba (center) where he began his political career, as well as to fish farming.
In the previous election in October 2019, during which Mr. Morales was running for a fourth term, the counting was suspended for more than twenty hours.
Upon his resumption, Evo Morales was declared the winner in the first round.
The opposition then shouted fraud, clashes broke out between supporters and detractors of the head of state, killing more than 30.
Dropped by the police and the army, the latter finally resigned before fleeing to Mexico, then to Argentina.