(CNN Spanish) – The former departmental prosecutor of Tarija, Sandra Gutiérrez, said this Wednesday that she was dismissed for issuing an arrest warrant against the former president of Bolivia Evo Morales and that this court order has now become void.
In statements to the media outside the Tarija Prosecutor’s Office, Gutiérrez said that he ordered the arrest of Morales because he is considered responsible for human trafficking and smuggling. He added that at least one of the possible victims is a minor and that for that reason he cannot give more details about the case.
Gutiérrez said in an interview with CNN Conclusions that before being removed from office, she and her team had all the necessary evidence to issue an arrest warrant against former President Evo Morales for the alleged crime of human trafficking. In addition, he assures that he was not notified before because there was a risk of flight and his address is not known.
Former prosecutor Gutiérrez: He would still be in office if he had abandoned the Evo Morales case
CNN contacted Morales this Thursday to obtain his response to those accusations and is awaiting a response.
The former president — who wants to be a presidential candidate again in 2025 — published a message on his X and Facebook accounts in which he rejected the accusations and attributed them to an alleged attempt to silence him.
“It doesn’t surprise me or worry me! All neoliberal governments, including the current one, threatened me, persecuted me, imprisoned me, tried to kill me. I’m not afraid! They won’t shut me up! I will continue fighting alongside our people, alongside my sisters and brothers who never abandoned me. Along with the poncho and the skirt,” he said.
The arrest order, according to Gutiérrez, was annulled this Wednesday as a result of a legal appeal known as a freedom action, promoted in the city of Santa Cruz.
At the same time, the former prosecutor added, she received complaints from the Attorney General of Bolivia, Juan Lanchipa.
According to Gutiérrez, when Lanchipa learned that the Tarija Prosecutor’s Office was working on this case, he assured him that another specialized area would be in charge of him, and in retaliation this Wednesday he asked him to resign from the position. After she refused to resign, he ordered her dismissal.
“We had an arrest warrant against Mr. Juan Evo Morales Ayma, we also had arrest warrants against other people, they have made it void, absolutely nothing,” said Gutiérrez.
Gutiérrez assured CNN that if she had agreed to drop the case against former President Evo Morales, as Bolivia’s Attorney General Juan Lanchipa allegedly ordered, she would remain in office. Gutiérrez affirms that it was not in his convictions to leave when, as he says, there was all the evidence against him. CNN contacted Morales this Thursday to obtain his response to those accusations and is awaiting a response.
Former prosecutor Gutiérrez: He would still be in office if he had abandoned the Evo Morales case
“At the time I will demonstrate with evidence what Mr. Juan Lanchipa Ponce spoke to me, in the rude way in which the attorney general spoke to me, telling me ‘that I told you to drop that case,'” he insisted. .
The Attorney General’s Office of Bolivia responded to the allegations this Thursday. In a statement, Lanchipa said that the arrest order was derived from a police intelligence report and that, due to the complexity of the case, he ordered the creation of a commission of specialized prosecutors. He also denied having stopped actions by the Public Ministry and added that the court order against Morales was annulled by a decision of a constitutional guarantees judge, who considered that fundamental rights had been violated.
“At no time did the undersigned Attorney General of the State give any instructions to paralyze the indicated process,” Lanchipa stated, adding that Gutiérrez was dismissed due to deficiencies in her “professional suitability” that – according to the official – were exposed in this and other cases.
“Irregular actions cannot be endorsed out of respect for the principle of objectivity, beyond the alleged active subject of a possible criminal act,” he concluded.
With information from Ivonne Valdés and Karina Maciel
