Bolivia President Demands Morales Face Justice Over Accusations

Bolivia's interim President Jeanine Anez said on Friday that ex leader Evo Morales, who lives in exile in Argentina, must respond to accusations that he had sexual relations with two minors.

Over the last week, the 60-year-old Morales has faced two separate accusations that he had sex with underaged girls, including that he fathered a child with one.

"Evo Morales has to explain the 'horror' of sexual abuse against minors. Explanations to the courts and to the country," the conservative Anez wrote on Twitter.

Last week, the justice ministry filed a complaint against Morales, who led the country from 2006-19, for "statutory rape and human trafficking."

And on Monday it sent a report to the La Paz ombudsman for children and adolescents asking it to investigate "a possible new case of rape" following an anonymous complaint.

Authorities claimed to be in possession of a birth certificate showing that Morales was the father of a child born to a girl who "fell pregnant when she was 15 years and five months old."

Morales's Movement for Socialism (MAS) party claims the accusations are aimed at having "a politico-electoral impact" on October's presidential election.

Morales is not standing but the candidate for MAS, Luis Arce, has consistently led opinion polls since he was nominated in January.

Bolivia's Foreign Minister Karen Longaric called on Argentina to "get rid of" Morales, whom they claim their South American neighbor is "protecting at all costs."

Morales moved to Argentina in December, a month after he fled his homeland for Mexico after resigning.

He had controversially won re-election last October even though he was constitutionally barred from standing for a fourth term.

But three weeks of protests followed the vote and after an Organization of American States audit found evidence of electoral fraud, Morales lost the support of the armed forces and left the country.

Bolivia has previously complained to Argentina, led by center-left President Alberto Fernandez, that Morales is violating the terms of his refugee status by indulging in political activity.

He tweets incessantly a range of accusations against the government, whom he calls "putschists."

It's not the first time the government has levied accusations against Morales.

They also accused him of "sedition and terrorism" over the civil unrest that broke out following his resignation.

Morales was Bolivia's first ever indigenous president.

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