Bolivia launches investigation into former president Morales — The Guardian

In Bolivia, acting attorney general José Armando Urioste announced a preliminary investigation into former president Evo Morales. It concerns possible involvement in murder, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful deprivation of liberty in the case of a 2009 police raid in the city of Santa Cruz, The Guardian reports.

Raid on a Santa Cruz hotel

During a police raid on a hotel 17 years ago, Eduardo Rózsa Flores, a citizen of Bolivia and Croatia, Irishman Michael Dwyer, and Árpád Magyarosi, a citizen of Hungary and Romania, were killed. Two other foreigners — Mario Tadić, a citizen of Bolivia and Croatia, and Hungarian Elöd Tóásó — survived. After their detention, they said they had been tortured.

The Morales administration, which was in power at the time, claimed that Rózsa Flores led a separatist movement allegedly financed by right-wing members of Santa Cruz's economic elite. During an official visit to Venezuela, Morales told journalists that he had ordered the detention of the foreigners, whom he called “mercenaries.”

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Letter to the Supreme Court

Urioste, who has held the position for only a week, said in a letter to the Supreme Court that authorities are gathering evidence against Morales and his former vice president Álvaro García Linera. The investigation was launched following a complaint by right-wing lawmakers Tomasa Yarhui and Rodrigo Antonio.

Relatives of those killed and victims appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. In 2021, it concluded that the Bolivian government had violated human rights. Morales and García Linera did not comment on the new investigation.

Evo Morales, the first Indigenous person to serve as president of Bolivia, is currently hiding from two active arrest warrants. One is linked to his alleged role in mass protests that paralysed the country for 53 days this year. The other concerns an accusation of trafficking a minor with whom he reportedly has a daughter. Morales denies the allegations.