Evidence cornering evo for sexual abuse of girls when he was president | La evidencia que acorrala a Evo por abusos sexuales a niñas cuando era presidente

By Alejandro Entrambasaguas, El Debate:

Evo Morales, expresidente de Bolivia
Evo Morales, former Bolivian president. EP

These are the pieces of evidence cornering Evo Morales for sexual abuse of girls during his time as president of Bolivia

El Debate exclusively publishes today the new developments that could definitively turn the case around

The former Bolivian president, Evo Morales, is being investigated by the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office for sexually abusing underage girls for several years. El Debate exclusively publishes today all the evidence, many of them new, that judicially corner the head of the Movement for Socialism (MAS). The most significant is a set of three images that had been kept secret until now, which confirm that senior police officials covered up the investigation into an alleged physical assault by the former president on one of the adolescents. Another new development is the exact location where most of the abuses took place. Evo, who has been in hiding since a warrant for his arrest was issued, avoids giving his version of events after being contacted by this newspaper. Civil groups supporting him have been blocking the main roads in the Andean country for several days and are threatening violence if he is arrested.

Las fotografías ocultadas para proteger a Evo Morales
The three photographs that were kept secret to protect Evo Morales. El Debate

Currently, Evo is being investigated for crimes of trafficking, sexual abuse, and statutory rape. There are two cases against him, revealed in 2020 by investigative journalist Alejandro Entrambasaguas. The first case involves impregnating a young woman named Cindy Sarai Vargas Pozo when she was only fifteen years old. The birth certificate states that the baby was born on February 8, 2016, at 11:12 a.m. in the Bolivian city of Yacuiba. The document was signed by official Angélica Midori Ichinose Zgombich, and it indicates that Juan Evo Morales Ayma, the full name of the former president, acknowledged being the father of the girl, conceived naturally. The child is now eight years old. The birth certificate number is 128,023, recorded in book 85, entry 1, of the Official Registry 60.301.002 of the Bolivian Civil Registry.

The teenager, now in her twenties, and her daughter were declared missing last week by the authorities. Cindy Sarai was born on December 12, 1999, in Tarija, in the south of the country. According to the Servicio General de Identificación Personal (SEGIP), the Bolivian agency responsible for issuing identity documents, she is a university student. She met Evo at the age of 14 while serving as a youth guard for the former president’s party. She is still listed as a member of the MAS party, according to the Bolivian Electoral Register.

Right after the baby was born, much of the teenager’s family was placed in government agencies. Her mother, Idelsa Pozo Saavedra, also a MAS supporter, was hired as the head of the Gender Unit in the Autonomous Regional Government of Gran Chaco. One of her brothers was recruited by the Telecommunications and Transport Regulatory Authority (ATT), under the Ministry of Public Works, while another, a police officer, was promoted to a senior management position with a significant salary increase in the city of Potosí.

Her father, Emeterio Varas Mamani, with whom the young woman cut ties after starting her relationship with the former president, was the only one who continued living the same life, working in a motorcycle repair shop in Yacuiba alongside her third brother, who had been sentenced to 15 years of prohibition from leaving the country for attempted rape of a girl, with whom she also had no contact. Emeterio was arrested on October 11 and, in his statement to the agents of the Special Force to Fight Crime (FELCC), he acknowledged knowing that his daughter and Evo had a baby when she was a minor. Agents are currently investigating whether the parents handed over their daughter in exchange for money. “Do you know who the father of your granddaughter is?” they asked during the interrogation. “Of course, she is Evo Morales’s daughter,” he replied.

Between 2015 and 2019, when Evo maintained a romantic relationship with Cindy Sarai, the minor took a total of 140 domestic flights across Bolivia, which is surprising to the agents given the young woman’s lack of economic resources at the time. Of all the trips, fifty were made with the baby, and the rest were alone. The total cost of all these tickets was 110,732 bolivianos (approximately 13,841.49 euros), an unusual amount for a girl from a humble family to afford. In parallel to these events, and as reported by El Debate, it is expected that in the coming days, the investigation file will be expanded to include a list of possible accomplices—people who knew about Evo’s pregnancy with a minor but chose to remain silent instead of reporting it.

The list of accomplices

This list, already in draft form, includes a series of people photographed with Cindy Sarai and the minor. Many of them were also captured in other photos with the second abuse case. All of them are part of Evo’s “praetorian guard.” Among them are his former vice president Álvaro García Linera, or his former ministers Carlos Romero and Sacha Llorenti. Also, Andrónico Rodríguez, the president of the Senate, or Senator Leonardo Loza. This newspaper has accessed eight photographs of Cindy Sarai, her mother, and the baby of a MAS politician posing with Loza, who now defends Evo’s innocence, claiming that these accusations are part of a political persecution campaign. The political event Cindy Sarai attended with the daughter she had with the former president was the IX Congress of the MAS, held on December 15, 16, and 17, 2016. The photos were taken on the last day at 6:59 p.m. with a Nikon D5100 camera.

The second case under investigation involves Noemí Meneses Chávez, born on April 16, 2001, in the Chapare province. Her case was discovered by chance during a routine police checkpoint on Bolivian roads. On July 7, 2020, a black Nissan Patrol with license plate 3151 GAH, an official vehicle of the Cochabamba Governor’s Office reported stolen for several years, was intercepted by a patrol in the Tiraque municipality. Inside were Noemí, her sister, and a driver who worked for the public institution. All three were arrested, and legal proceedings were initiated for the illegal use of state property.

The FELCC agents confiscated their mobile phones, and after downloading their contents, they discovered that Noemí had been in a relationship with Evo since she was a minor. The content from the device was described in a confidential 46-page report dated July 8, 2020, which, in addition to copying the content of the conversations they exchanged, included dozens of photos of Evo and “La Noe,” as he referred to her in private, posing together in various everyday situations typical of a couple: having breakfast, lunch, and dinner, exercising, in the bathroom, or even lying barefoot on a bed.

Four years after the police investigation began, El Debate has confirmed that one of the initial hypotheses was that Evo allegedly physically assaulted the girls in addition to the sexual abuse. However, the investigations were halted after the officers in charge were pressured by senior police officials sympathetic to the MAS. This new information, previously unknown, could be a turning point in the case, arising after finding photographs of Noemí crying and others showing parts of her body with bruises and even a pool of blood, which this newspaper has accessed and is publishing exclusively today.

The house of horrors

Some of the images were taken at the official residence of the Bolivian Presidency, the San Jorge residence, on the 29th floor of the Casa Grande del Pueblo building, which Evo had built exclusively to have more privacy as head of state, or at his private home in Cochabamba. However, the place where the former president met with the girls was a chalet located in Achumani (La Paz). Specifically, at the corner of Alexander Avenue and Pamir Pampa Street. A property where, in theory, Evo underwent medical treatments, but which, in reality, was used to take the girls. The house was guarded by people who claimed to be Cuban doctors but were actually Cubans with diplomatic passports registered with the Cuban Embassy. Later, the minors were taken to the “Mamá diablo” venue, also in La Paz. His then-chief of staff, Patricia Hermosa, was responsible for arranging the closure of the venue so that only the former president and his companions could be inside. Inside, as one of the former president’s bodyguards tells El Debate, he would make the girls drink his favorite alcohol, Kayana Rum, which he colloquially referred to as “El Kayanazo.” The presidential plane was another location.

Vivienda donde, según los investigadores, Evo Morales abusaba de las menores
Housing where, according to investigators, Evo Morales abused the minors. El Debate

The material that has remained hidden over the years also included banking information for Noemí. This led agents to believe that Evo gave money to the young woman during the time he was with her. Likewise, there is also material that Noemí sent to her contacts in which Evo expressed a desire for the death of former president Jeanine Áñez and her Defense Minister, Luis Fernando López Julio, due to coronavirus.

At the same time, in the report from Noemí’s phone, numbered with the code LPZ-1914866 and requested ex officio by prosecutor Rudy Terrazas Torrico of the La Paz District Attorney’s Office, there are numerous messages from the teenager to the former president. On June 2, 2020, Noemí sent Evo: “My love. The best day of my life was the day you and I became boyfriend and girlfriend, that day on the 24th when I promised my heart and yours my sincere love forever.” On May 18, 2020, the teenager wrote: “My love, good night. Evo, remember that I will never stop thinking about you. Wishing for you, loving you. Because you have become everything important in my life.”

Las fotografías de odio a la expresidenta Jeanine Áñez que Evo enviaba a sus contactos
The photographs of hate towards former president Jeanine Áñez that Evo sent to his contacts. El Debate

Two days later, she continued: “Good morning, my life. You are and will be the best boyfriend in the world. I will always love you.” On May 29, 2020: “My love, on the day of my period, I always want you to treat me like a pregnant woman, okay?” More messages: “My Evito. If there’s one thing I want in this life, it’s to be happy with you. My love, don’t tell me with words what you can tell me with kisses when we see each other,” “You are the reason I will always smile,” and “You know, love? I thank God for putting you in my path and allowing me to be happy by your side for a lifetime. I love you.”

There’s also a video in which the teenager congratulated him on their anniversary: “I wish you a happy anniversary. Next month we’ll be together. It has been a journey of five years together. I’m very lucky to have you. I love you a lot,” she can be heard saying. This video is key because it proves that when their relationship began, she was only 14 years old.

The intermediaries for the girls

At that time, the former president was in Argentina after fleeing Bolivia due to accusations of electoral fraud, and he never responded in writing. When he received a message, he would call on the phone. Between March 4 and July 7, Evo called Noemí 348 times. The phone from which he made these calls was +54 911 62** – ****, which he currently uses. Shortly after she was detained for the car theft, Noemí was released and then sent another message to the former president: “We are detained at the FELCC command of Quintanilla.” From that moment on, she disappeared. Investigators later discovered that she had gone to Argentina and was at the house Evo used in Buenos Aires, a mansion located on Conesa Street. The young woman crossed the border through an uncontrolled point with the help of military officer Ruring River Covarruvias. Two months later, he was arrested by agents in central La Paz. Before being handcuffed, he removed the SIM card from his mobile phone and swallowed it to destroy evidence.

He was imprisoned in Chonchocoro prison, one of the most dangerous in the world, and later escaped. He was recaptured and is currently in Arani prison. He was accused of being the one responsible for obtaining “ñustitas,” a term Evo used to refer to the minors (translated from Aymara as “princesses of royal blood”). He is a military officer who had been sentenced since November 2014 to fifteen years in prison for a crime of rape. In the police record, Covarrubias carried an official credential as an advisor to the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia. During a prison transfer, he admitted to having taken girls to the former president and also confessed to agents that Evo had asked him to murder Colonel Iván Rojas del Carpio, then director of the FELCC. “He told me that if I succeeded, he would name me minister,” he claimed.

Another person who acted as a link between Evo and the minors, who had not been known until now, was his cousin Hernán Solís Morales. One of the members of the police escort who had the president during his last term revealed to this newspaper that he was also the one who helped him obtain the girls.

The teenager lived with the former president in Buenos Aires for at least a month and a half. Evo settled there on December 12, 2019, and only four days later, she arrived. She left Bolivia through the border with Yacuiba and did not return until February 7, 2020, when she flew in through Jorge Wilstermann Airport. Twenty days later, she went back. However, this time they met in Ushuaia, specifically in a rural house near Avenida Maipú. Evo and Noemí also met in Mexico, the country where the former president initially settled after the electoral fraud allegations. El Debate has contacted him to gather his version of the events described here, but he has refused to respond.

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