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BOLIVIA-POLITICS-PROTESTS-CRIME
Bolivia accuses ex-president Morales of ‘terrorism’
LA PAZ, Nov 23, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Bolivia’s caretaker government on Friday
filed a complaint accusing Evo Morales of “sedition and terrorism” after the
ex-president allegedly called on supporters to maintain blockades in the
crisis-hit country.
Interior Minister Arturo Murillo referred the case to federal prosecutors
in La Paz, which has been choked by road blocks for weeks, causing food and
fuel shortages in the seat of government.
In a separate announcement late Friday, the interim government said it
would hold talks with protest groups Saturday in the hope of striking an
agreement “to pacify the country” and end its worst political crisis in 16
years.
“We are seeking the maximum penalty for sedition and terrorism,” Murillo
told reporters after launching legal action against Morales.
Murillo also accused Morales’ former top minister Juan Ramon Quintana,
whose whereabouts are unknown, of the same crimes.
If Morales — who fled to Mexico after resigning on November 10 — were
charged and convicted, he would face a maximum penalty of 30 years in jail.
The legal action against Bolivia’s first indigenous president comes as
Congress debates when to hold new elections seen as crucial to quelling weeks
of unrest that erupted after the disputed October 20 ballot.
Morales, who had been seeking a fourth term, claimed he won the vote, but
opposition groups said it was rigged.
A poll audit by the Washington-based Organization of American States found
irregularities in the results.
At least 32 people have been killed since the election, including 17 in
clashes with security forces as anti-government protesters block main roads.
– ‘Let us govern’ –
Morales has accused Bolivian security forces of engaging in “genocide”
against his indigenous supporters, and called for action by the international
community.
The legal action comes after Murillo played a telephone recording to
journalists on Wednesday, allegedly of Morales issuing instructions to a
leader of the opposition movement in Bolivia.
“Don’t let food into the cities, we’re going to block, really encircle (the
cities),” says the voice Murillo attributed to Morales.
Morales’s order was a “crime against humanity,” Murillo told reporters
Wednesday, accusing the ex-president of “terrorism.”
Bolivia has lodged a formal protest to Mexico over Morales’s remarks,
saying they “contravened” his political asylum status, the foreign ministry
said Thursday.
Morales, who claims to have been a victim of a coup after losing the
support of the security forces, tweeted Friday — several hours before
Murillo filed the complaint — that the investigation was based on “planted
evidence and manipulated recordings.”
Political consultant Ivan Arias told AFP the probe could make Morales’s
supporters even more loyal to the ex-president or lead them to think “Evo is
already history.”
Right-wing Senate speaker Jeanine Anez, who declared herself interim leader
after Morales quit, on Friday called on anti-government protesters to “let us
govern” and lift the road blocks around La Paz.
Anez and her ministers will meet with opposition groups at the presidential
palace on Saturday at 2000 GMT in an attempt to reach a deal to lift the
crippling blockades and end the unrest, Public Works Minister Yerko Nunez
told reporters.
Congress must approve a law that would allow for new elections. It also
needs to agree on a new seven-member electoral court, after members of the
previous panel were charged with manipulating results.
Many Bolivians are fed up with the violence and want new elections in the
hope they will stabilize the country.
“If (Anez) calls elections everything will calm down and hopefully this
time there will be no fraud and everything will be transparent,” Tatiana
Vicuna, 18, told AFP in La Paz.
In the latest unrest on Thursday, police tear gassed indigenous protesters
who marched on La Paz with the coffins of five of the eight people killed in
clashes at a key fuel plant Tuesday.
The protesters from El Alto, a Morales stronghold near La Paz, branded Anez
a “murderer” and called for her to resign.
The killings have deepened divisions between indigenous people loyal to
Morales and Bolivia’s mainly city-dwelling middle and upper classes.
The United States on Thursday suggested that Morales should stay out of
upcoming elections, which should be “free, fair and transparent.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/0833 hrs