A Bolivian judge on Monday held former President Evo Morales in contempt after he failed to appear in court for a trial where he faces charges of trafficking a minor, local newspaper La Razon reported.
Morales served three terms as Bolivia’s first indigenous president from 2006 to 2019. He resigned following a disputed election that plunged the country into turmoil.
He is accused of having a relationship with a teenager and having a child with her in 2016 while he was in office. Thousands of supporters have protested the investigation.
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Last week, Morales wrote on social media that he was a victim of “legal warfare” and that “the government is carrying out against me a brutal judicial and media persecution with fabricated charges to annihilate me morally and physically”.
The trial that was supposed to open in the southern city of Tarija.
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Morales has been in hiding from an arrest warrant issued in the case in his central Bolivian stronghold of Chapare since late 2024, where his supporters stand ready to resist a police raid targeting the former leader.
Morales was declared in contempt of court in January 2025 when he did not appear for a pretrial detention hearing.