Bolivian court issues arrest warrant for former president Evo Morales over 'r@pe of 15-year-old girl'

A Bolivian court has issued an arrest warrant for former president Evo Morales accused of statutory r@pe and human trafficking after he failed to testify this week.

Evo Morales is accused of fathering a child with an unnamed 15-year-old child while in office in 2016, when he was 57-years old.

The girl's parents are said to have agreed to the relationship in return for unspecified 'political favours', the lawsuit claims.

Morales, who resigned amid unrest over disputed election results, claimed opponents were 'inventing accusations' to 'dismantle the... popular movement'.

According to the lawsuit, the unnamed victim was a member of his political youth guard in 2015, when he is claimed to have started a sexual relationship with her.

In 2016, the girl gave birth to a daughter, whom Morales is accused of fathering.

He could face arrest for refusing the summons by the prosecutor's office in the southern Tarija department.  

The victim's parents also failed to testify after being summoned and will be apprehended, too, as a result. 

In Bolivia, statutory rape is a private crime only investigated when there is a complaint from the victim of her parents. 

Morales' lawyer said his client considered the probe "illegal," arguing that an investigation in 2020 into the same claims was closed for lack of evidence.

The Tarija prosecutor who reopened the case expanded it to include human trafficking and smuggling over suspicions that the girl's parents enrolled her in his youth wing with the aim of political advancement and personal gain.

Morales, who was elected Bolivia's first Indigenous president in 2006, claims the allegations were fabricated by the government of his arch-rival, current president Luis Arce, to try to discredit him.

"The traitor government has unleashed a judicial war, criminalized social protest and persecuted the political opposition to try to outlaw us," Morales said.

'Lucho [Arce, incumbent president] is the same as [former president, Jeanine] Áñez. Lucho is Áñez'.

'Everything is a product of the desperation of the government, which has no answer to the crisis and has no electoral possibilities.'

'This is further proof that this is a right-wing government that does everything to comply with the dictates of the White House,' he said in a rant on Twitter/X. 

Morales insists that his opponents are intentionally trying to discredit him for political reasons, and has called on the government not to interfere with his 'family'.