MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd November, 2019) Bolivia's interim government opened a criminal case against former President Evo Morales on Friday, interim Interior Minister Arturo Murillo announced.
On Wednesday, Murillo showed reporters a video clip of Morales allegedly giving instructions to instigate recent protests against the interim government. Murillo went on to claim that the proposed unrest might lead to blocked roads and therefore result in disrupted food deliveries to Bolivia's cities. Morales, in turn, said the video clip, which the authorities used in their lawsuit against him, had been edited.
"The evidence is obvious, we have presented it. Juan Ramon Quintana [the former head of the president's administration] stated that he intended to turn Bolivia into Vietnam, and he is attempting to do it ... The video shows the evidence against Evo Morales. You can clearly hear on the recording that he calls for the killing of civilians and laying siege to the city," Murillo said during a press conference broadcast by Bolivia tv channel.
Earlier in the day, Bolivia's Foreign Ministry protested to the government of Mexico, saying that Morales was engaged in activities that contradicted the asylum status he had acquired in Mexico after having fled there in the wake of his resignation.
Morales fled Bolivia earlier in November amid violent protests against the results of the presidential election, in which he secured his fourth term in office. Opposition lawmaker Jeanine Anez then took over as an interim president, and Morales later characterized the situation as a coup.
The ex-president's supporters subsequently engaged in rallies against Anez' government, which led to violent clashes with security officers.
