Socialist President of Bolivia Luis Arce Catacora recently stated that the pedophilia rumors against his predecessor and former mentor — now-turned main rival — Evo Morales were “an open secret” during Morales’ lengthy presidency.
Arce, who prior to taking office in 2020 served as Morales’ finance minister for over a decade, issued the remarks during an interview with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada published on Sunday in which he asserted he had been aware of the pedophilia and statutory rape against Morales and claimed “everyone” was aware of the accusations but remained silent.
“Who knows why it was kept quiet, because it was an open secret. We all knew about it, but it was kept there,” Arce said.
Morales, a failed socialist dictator that availed himself of dubious court rulings to bypass the Bolivian constitution and rule Bolivia for a total of four consecutive terms until his voluntary resignation in 2019, is being investigated by local prosecutors on accusations of human trafficking and statutory rape allegedly committed over the course of his presidency.
Local prosecutors formally charged Morales last week and requested an arrest warrant against Morales, who at press time remains “bunkered” in central Bolivia’s Chapare region where he remains under the constant protection of his loyalists.
Asked why was something not done about the pedophilia accusations before, Arce responded that “who knows in Evo’s government,” but his administration is not going to allow “this type of ethical and moral aspects that damage, not only a political instrument such as ours, but also society.”
Hours after Arce’s interview with the Mexican newspaper, the Bolivian socialist president reaffirmed to reporters at a Monday press conference that he heard the pedophilia rumors during Morales’ 2019 presidential campaign at a time he served as one of his ministers.
“In the 2019 campaign that we had to do to help Evo Morales, they also shouted ‘pedophile’ at us. If they shouted at us, people perceived that this was so. We have heard it, personally they said that to me in 2020 in the campaign we did,” Arce said upon being inquired by a reporter over the interview.
“In 2020 I was campaigning and going to the neighborhoods, what did many people say to me and shouted at me, they shouted at me pedophile and we all knew it was not because of me, because believe me, I have no record in my life, and that of course hurts,” he added.
The investigation against Morales was originally launched in 2019 but remained “frozen” until September of this year, when local authorities found evidence in the southern city of Tarija that indicated Morales had a sexual relationship with someone identified as Cindy Vargas in 2016 at a time when Vargas was 15 years old.
A birth certificate recently found by local authorities in Tarija’s civil registry records lists Morales as the father of a child Vargas gave birth to at a time when she was allegedly 16. The investigators also determined that at the time the statutory rape allegedly occurred, Vargas’ parents had her enrolled in a pro-Morales youth organization that the failed socialist dictator created in the mid-2010s and which was made up of teenagers aged 14-15.
The presumptive victim’s parents stand accused of allegedly “handing over” Vargas to Morales and allowing the sexual relationship to happen in exchange for political and other benefits. Both Vargas and her eight-year-old child remain missing since early October and were last seen in the vicinity of a school located in the municipality of Yacuiba, where the child was enrolled.
Morales responded to the accusations by ordering his sympathizers to erect violent blockades across the nation’s main roads in October to prevent his possible arrest. The blockades, which lasted over three weeks, caused significant losses to Bolivia’s economy, leading to widespread starvation and shortages of other essential supplies. Pro-Morales loyalists violently responded to local law enforcement’s efforts to dismantle the blockades with stones and dynamite.
Although Arce was once Morales’ political protegé and his chosen successor, both socialists remain engaged in an ongoing years-long power struggle over control of both Bolivia and the ruling Movement Towards Socialism Party (MAS). The feud between Arce and Morales has effectively split MAS into two factions, one of which is loyal to Arce, while the other has pledged its loyalty to Morales.
In November, lawmakers from the pro-Morales MAS faction accompanied a 24-year old woman identified as Jessica Villarroel as she accused Arce of sexual harassment and abuse of power for engaging in an extramarital affair with her. Bolivian government officials refuted the accusations on behalf of Arce, and described it as a “mental fart” and a “badly written script.”
Despite being term-limited, Morales has insisted that he will run for a fifth term in the upcoming 2025 presidential elections.