Bolivian police officers and officials from the Prosecutor’s Office raided a home on Wednesday in search of the former minister of Evo Morales, Juan Ramón Quintanawho is being investigated for the blockades carried out by sympathizers of the coca leader between October 14 and November 6.
The colonel Gabriel Nemedirector of the Special Force to Fight Crime (Felcc) of La Paz, informed the local media that the procedure responds to an open case against Quintana for the crimes of terrorism and public incitement to commit a crime, and that they will comply with the instructions issued by Justice.
The operation was carried out in the residential neighborhood of Sopocachiin Peacewhere the former minister would have two properties. Raids were also carried out at a home in Cochabamba and another in Santa Cruz. A month ago, from hiding, the former strongman of the Morales Government (2006-2019) He warned through a video that “he will not be easy prey” for the authorities.
“I call on our comrades to continue fighting for our rights, for our freedoms and determined to recover democracy (…) let us not be afraid of state terrorism nor be terrified of the imposture of power arcista“, Quintana stated in the recording and then said that”The people are stronger than all illegal, arbitrary and undemocratic forces of the abuse of power.”
Quintana He is one of the most controversial public figures in recent years in Bolivia due to the harshness with which he faced his opponents and the movements he considered insurgents and separatists. Was Minister of the Morales Presidency on three occasions (for almost ten years), Bolivian ambassador to Cuba and is currently one of his closest collaborators.
During the first week of the blockades, Quintana generated controversy by saying that the mobilizations needed “blood” forto feed.
In it Morales’ entourage has described these actions and the arrest of other union leaders, Ramiro Cucho and Humberto Claros, as political persecution to neutralize the protests. against the Government in the midst of the economic crisis facing the country. “There is a plan to punish the social struggle in the style of military dictatorships, where through the manipulation of justice they seek to discipline society so that it quietly and submissively accepts the current economic situation,” wrote the former president Morales in your X account.
In addition to Quintana, the peasant leader Ponciano Santos who coordinated the so-called “March to Save Bolivia” and the road blockade. Both have immigration alert and are in hiding.
The 23-day blockades generated an economic loss of 2.2 billion dollars to the business sectoraccording to information from the Federation of Private Entrepreneurs of La Paz; They exacerbated the fuel shortage by leaving tankers stranded in the middle of the road and serious damage to the people who were trapped between the pickets.
The protest was initially motivated by support for Evo Morales who faces an arrest warrant for the crimes of statutory rape and human trafficking in the investigation that accuses him of having impregnated a 15-year-old girl when he was president. As the days went by, other economic demands were added, such as the provision of dollars and fuel; and of a political order, such as the qualification of Morales for the 2025 elections and the validation of a congress that ratified him as leader of the party.
The justice system ended up settling the political dispute, by issuing a ruling that disqualified Morales and another that grants control of the MAS to an ally of Luis Arcelimiting the political aspirations of the coca grower leader at least in the short term.
