2023-08-20 23:50:55
La Paz, Aug 20 (EFE).- The head of the pro-government Movement for Socialism (MAS) and former Bolivian president, Evo Morales, said this Sunday that the judicial process announced against him by the Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, is not in his personal capacity but rather an “instruction” from President Luis Arce.
“(Lima) says that he is going to prosecute me individually, as a person, (that is) a lie. As long as he remains a minister, the minister is prosecuting” and it is “by instruction or authorization from Lucho (Arce),” Morales said in his program on the cocalera radio station Kawsachun Coca.
A few days ago, Morales denounced that a law firm to which the minister belongs “defends or advises a company that prosecutes the State for 35 million dollars,” something that accentuated the divisions within the ruling party.
In response, Lima stated in an interview with a local media at the beginning of the week that “he is not going to tolerate any more lies” and told the former president to “look for a good lawyer” because “he will have to answer in court about his accusations “.
On Thursday, the minister clarified that the judicial process that he intends to initiate is in a “personal capacity” because his honor has been affected and that the matter “does not belong to the national government or the Ministry of Justice.”
He also pointed out that he has no connection with the “Lima & Asociados” group of lawyers since he took office as Minister of Justice at the end of 2020 and that there is evidence “in notaries of public faith.”
In this regard, Morales insisted that this judicial process “is not as a person”, unless Lima resigns from his position, and questioned that despite the fact that the minister has transferred the law firm to his brother, the matter continues to be handled “in the family”.
“They told me that it is not only this, that law firm is defending more private companies suing the State,” he revealed.
The former head of state said that he will assume his legal defense and that for this he is coordinating “with a legal team.”
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Morales mentioned that since 2021 he warned President Arce “alone” about some acts of corruption and that he did the same with “information that there is protection for drug trafficking”, but that the government did nothing about it.
He also reiterated that his complaints, first private and then public, are “for the good” of the Government and “it is not to attack the president” but “to warn and improve.”
The division in the MAS began at the end of 2021 between followers of Morales, of the radical line, and of Arce, considered “renovators” which, in addition, have led to both sides separately proclaiming one and the other as candidates for the elections. of 2025.
(c) EFE Agency
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