Bolivia Issues Warrant for Arrest of Former President Evo Morales

Bolivian Ex-President Evo Morales Fails to Appear in Court, Warrant Reissued for Arrest

A Bolivian judge has found former President Evo Morales in contempt of court and reissued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to appear at the start of his trial on charges related to trafficking a minor. The ruling was made on Monday in the southern city of Tarija.

Morales, who served as Bolivia’s first Indigenous president from 2006 to 2019, is accused of fathering a child with a 15-year-old girl while in office. The parents of the teenager are also implicated in the allegations, having allegedly consented to the relationship in exchange for favors from Morales.

The former president did not attend the scheduled start of his trial on Monday, resulting in the proceedings being suspended. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Morales’s “unjustified absence” confirmed his fugitive status and warranted an arrest order as well as a travel ban.

Morales has been hiding in his central coca-growing stronghold of Chapare since late 2024, guarded by Indigenous supporters who have promised to resist any attempt to capture him. His supporters have warned that arresting Morales would lead to widespread unrest and potentially spark an insurgency across Bolivia.

An arrest warrant for Morales was first issued in October 2024, but it was unable to be executed due to road blockages by his supporters. Morales was previously declared in contempt of court in January 2025 after failing to appear at a pretrial detention hearing.

Morales’s lawyers claim that they were not properly notified about the trial and that the summons was served through an edict rather than being delivered to their client’s address. The former president has denied the allegations against him, stating that those who are persecuting him are “condemning me in record time.”

Source: Al Jazeera