Evo Morales defiant after new Bolivia arrest warrant

What the report says

Al Jazeera reported that a Bolivian court has issued a new arrest warrant for former President Evo Morales, who is facing an investigation by prosecutors in Santa Cruz. According to the district prosecutor’s office, the case includes suspected “armed uprising” against the state, terrorism, and attacks affecting transport safety. The warrant orders police to detain Morales and take him to a special anticorruption unit.

The investigation follows protests in June by farmers and truckers over Bolivia’s economic troubles, higher living costs and austerity measures pursued by conservative President Rodrigo Paz. Morales supported the demonstrations and rejected the latest move against him, writing on X that authorities would not intimidate him. He accused the government of using the case to distract from what he described as a severe economic and social crisis.

Al Jazeera, citing DPA, said the complaint that led to the investigation was filed by the civic group Comité pro Santa Cruz and later taken up by the Interior Ministry. It alleges Morales’s supporters created shortages of food, fuel and medicine by blocking transport routes for 53 days. Paz declared a state of emergency in June, after which the protests eased.

Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, governed from 2006 until his resignation in 2019 after a disputed election and fraud allegations. He later returned from exile after ally Luis Arce won the presidency. Al Jazeera also noted that Morales faces separate allegations involving trafficking a minor and statutory rape, which he has denied, and that a previous arrest warrant in that case was renewed earlier in 2026 after he did not appear in court.