LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — The almost monthlong disappearance from public view of Bolivia's towering socialist icon, ex-leaderEvo Morales, shortly afterthe Jan. 3 U.S. seizureof his close ally former Venezuelan PresidentNicolás Maduro, is alarming his supporters, roiling his enemies and galvanizing the internet.
On Monday, he missed a ceremony that he typically attends welcoming students back from summer break. On Sunday, Morales was a no-show for the fourth straight weekly broadcast of his political radio show, which he has hosted without interruption for years.
Since early January, he has skipped scheduled meetings with members of his coca-leaf growing union inBolivia's remote Chapare regionand his daily stream of social media content has all but dried up.
Although Morales has spent the past yearevading an arrest warranton charges of human trafficking, his fugitive status hasn't stopped the firebrand union leader from speaking at rallies, receiving supporters,giving interviews, posting on X — or even running anunconventional presidential campaignlast year — all from his political stronghold in the Chapare.
Morales rejects the statutory rape allegations as politically motivated.
The question of Morales' whereabouts has set off furious speculation as the Trump administration imposes its political will in South America throughsanctions, punitivetariffs, electoralendorsements, financialbailoutsandmilitary action.
Explanations range from dengue to exile
Morales' close associates have privately declined to provide an explanation for his absences while publicly telling supporters that the former president has been recovering fromdengue fever,a mosquito-borne viral illness with symptoms that typically last no longer than a week.
"We have asked our brother Evo Morales to rest completely," said Dieter Mendoza, vice president of a body of farmers known as the Six Federations that runs the coca-leaf trade in the tropics, declining to elaborate.
For Morales' rivals, the mystery has stirred resentful memories of 2019, when he resigned under pressure from the military after his disputed bid for an unconstitutional third term provokedmass protests. Moralesfled to Mexicothen tookrefuge in Argentina, only to return home whenLuis Arce, his former finance minister, took the presidency in 2020.
"Evo Morales is in Mexico," declared right-wing lawmaker Edgar Zegarra, offering no evidence but demanding that the government prove otherwise. "He has not appeared, not even at political events, and they don't know how to justify it."
Security officials within Bolivia'sfirst conservative governmentfollowing almost 20 years of dominance by Morales' Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party, have been cryptic.
"The former president has not left Bolivia," said Police Commander Gen. General Mirko Sokol, "at least not through any official channels."
WhatsApp messages and calls to Morales went unanswered Monday.
Morales withdraws as Bolivia veers to the right
Bolivia's election of centristPresident Rodrigo Pazlast October came as part of awider ideological swing across Latin America, where U.S. President Donald Trump has becomeincreasingly entangledin regional politics.
In the last two years, right-wing would-be saviors have come to power in countries wracked byeconomic crisislike Argentina and consumed by fears ofviolent crimelike Chile.Costa Rica'selection of a right-wing populist Monday reinforced the trend.
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Like Maduro and his mentor and predecessor, the lateHugo Chávez, Morales was openlyhostile to the United Statesand cozied up to its political foes during his 14 years as Bolivia's first Indigenous president from 2006 to 2019.
In 2008, Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador and counternarcotics officials for allegedly conspiring against his government. Russia poured money into Bolivia's energy and lithium mining sectors. Chinese companies won contracts to build highways and dams. Iran offered the country itsdrone technology.
Now Paz is trying to reverse the political direction. His government has scrappedvisa requirementsfor American tourists, held talks with U.S. officials on securing loans to rescue Bolivia's economy and paved the way for the return of the Drug Enforcement Agency to Bolivia, a regional cocaine-trafficking hub.
The prospect of the DEA's reappearance has rattled the Bolivian tropics still scarred from an aggressive U.S.-backed war on drugs in the late 1990s that forced coca farmers to eradicate their crops. The plant is the raw material of cocaine but it also holdsdeep culturaland spiritual significance in the country.
Coca farmers in the Chapare say they haven't seen Morales since Jan. 8, as panic about a rare overflight by a Super Puma helicopter gripped the jungle region. Deputy Social Defense Minister, Ernesto Justiniano, later explained it was a data collection mission in coordination with foreign agencies, including the DEA, but had nothing to do with Morales.
"State surveillance should not be a threat to anyone," he said.
Government critics join the frenzy
Right-wing contenders in last year's presidential election campaign — including ex-PresidentJorge Quiroga, who ultimately lost therunoffto the moremoderate Paz—vowed that if elected, they'd yank Morales from his hideout in the Chapare and lock him up.
Now, they're seizing on unverified rumors of Morales' escape to ratchet up the pressure on Paz.
"He's playing hide-and-seek, he's making a mockery of the state," Quiroga said of Morales. "The country cannot speak of legal security when an arrest warrant is not executed."
Bolivia's judiciary, with its history of tacking where political winds blow, has alreadyfreed right-wing opposition figuresand pursued cases against former officials,detaining former President Arcejust weeks after Paz's inauguration.
But unlikeArce, Morales retains a strong, albeit small, base of support. Loyalists protecting him from arrest have vowed to resist with guerrilla tactics if security forces invade the Chapare.
Morales could appear at any time and quash the speculation about his status.
But for now his inner circle appears content to leave things a mystery.
"Our brother president is doing very well," said Leonardo Loza, a former senator and close friend of Morales. "He is in a corner of our greater homeland."
DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
