Morales is back: ex-president of Bolivia wants to become head of state again French rapper MHD sentenced to 12 years in prison for murder

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales wants to run again in the next elections in 2025. Government attacks against him have forced him to comply with the requests of his supporters and stand as a candidate, the 63-year-old left-wing politician wrote on social media on Sunday (local time).

Morales became the South American country’s first indigenous president in 2006. After the Constitutional Court declared the term limits invalid, he ran for a third re-election in October 2019. The former leader of coca growers declared himself the winner of the presidential election and the opposition accused him of fraud. Unrest broke out and under pressure from the military, Morales resigned and spent a year in exile in Mexico and Argentina. His supporters spoke of a coup.

Conservative Jeanine Áñez became interim president and a new election in October 2020 was won by Luis Arce of Morales’ socialist MAS party. Áñez was sentenced to ten years in prison in 2022 for dereliction of duty and constitutional violations. Human rights activists expressed concern about the independence of the Bolivian judiciary. Late last year, right-wing opposition leader Luis Fernando Camacho, the acting governor of Santa Cruz department, was arrested for his role in the alleged coup against Morales. He is still in custody.

Morales and Arce, his former economy minister, have now fallen out. The government wanted to eliminate him, also physically, the former head of state wrote on Sunday. If it fails to exclude him politically, the government wants to “use a woman to attack us, as the right-wing parties have already done.” About three years ago, Morales was reported on allegations of a sexual relationship with a minor. (sda/dpa)