Morales already faces arrest warrants in Tarija trafficking, terrorism cases
Bolivia’s Attorney General’s Office has opened a new criminal investigation into former President Evo Morales and former Vice President Álvaro García Linera over their alleged roles in a 2009 police operation at a Santa Cruz hotel that left three European nationals dead. Acting Attorney General José Armando Urioste notified the Supreme Court of Justice on Monday that prosecutors had begun gathering evidence for a special trial proceeding, according to Bolivian outlets El Deber and Unitel, after accepting a formal accusation submitted by the opposition Libre party’s legislative bloc.
The allegations stem from an April 16, 2009, police raid at the Hotel Las Américas in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city. During the operation, elite police officers shot and killed three European nationals whom Morales’ government had accused of belonging to a terrorist and separatist cell. Two survivors arrested during the raid, Bolivian-Croatian Mario Tadic and Hungarian Elöd Tóásó, subsequently filed international complaints alleging they had been tortured and subjected to serious human rights violations while in custody.
The new investigation follows earlier findings by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which concluded that the operation involved extrajudicial executions and serious human rights violations coordinated by senior government officials without judicial or prosecutorial authorization.
For the case to proceed to a formal trial, it would require approval from two-thirds of Bolivia’s Legislative Assembly. Known in Bolivia as a “juicio de responsabilidades,” the special legal procedure allows senior government officials to be tried for alleged offenses committed while in office. Morales has maintained that, as a former president, he should face proceedings under that mechanism rather than through the ordinary criminal justice system.
The investigation adds to Morales’ existing legal troubles. The former president already faces outstanding arrest warrants in separate cases involving human trafficking allegations in the southern region of Tarija and charges of terrorism and armed uprising related to road blockades across the country.