Evo Morales Missing: Bolivia Ex-President Disappears

Former Bolivian President Evo Morales has been missing for over a month following the United States attack on Venezuela and the detention of Nicolás Maduro, after more than a year of living openly in Bolivia despite an arrest warrant for human trafficking charges.

Evo Morales’ Disappearance and the Shifting Political Landscape

Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, immediately criticized the attack on Caracas as “brutal imperial aggression” on social media and during his Sunday radio program broadcast from the Chapare region. Since then, he has not been seen at public events or on his radio show, fueling speculation about his whereabouts.

Since October 2024, Morales had been entrenched in a small village deep within the Bolivian jungle, where hundreds of coca farmers prevented police from executing an arrest warrant related to allegations of fathering a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2016. Morales has denied the accusations, claiming they are politically motivated.

The disappearance comes as current Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz Pereira strengthens ties with the U.S. amid economic challenges. A key aim of Paz Pereira’s administration is to bring back the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which was expelled by Morales in 2008 following violent clashes with coca growers.

While the coca leaf has legal and cultural uses in Bolivia, a portion of the crop grown in Chapare is diverted for cocaine production.

Supporters of Morales claim he is ill with dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral illness. A presenter on his radio show stated he had “caught dengue,” and a coca growers’ leader said he is “in full recovery” and will “soon resume his public agenda,” without providing details.

Some speculate Morales has fled the country. Conservative MP Edgar Zegarra Bernal claimed Morales is in Mexico, a country he fled to in 2019 after being accused of rigging elections. Bernal questioned why the arrest warrant has not been enforced.

In December, Paz Pereira had Morales’ former protege, Luis Arce, arrested on accusations of enabling illicit enrichment while serving as Morales’s finance minister. Paz Pereira has not commented on Morales’s current location.

Government minister Marco Antonio Oviedo stated that available information suggests Morales remains in the Chapare region.

Morales has resumed posting on social media, criticizing Paz Pereira’s government. However, a political analyst noted that Morales does not typically write his own tweets.

Given the strengthening relationship between Paz Pereira and the White House, and the emphasis placed on the “war on drugs,” analysts believe the DEA’s return to Bolivia is likely, which would complicate Morales’s situation.

Additional reporting by Thomas Graham in Mexico City