The ex-president is accused of having a relationship with a teenager and having a child with her in 2016 while he was in office
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 2:20am, 12 May 2026A 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.
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.
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.
