Prosecutor’s Office Admits Complaint Against Evo | La Fiscalía admite denuncia contra Evo

By Carlos Quisbert, El Deber:

Prosecutor’s Office Admits Complaint Against Evo and 11 Accomplices for Trafficking of Noemí in 2015

La Fiscalía admite denuncia contra Evo y 11 cómplices por trata de Noemí en 2015

Former Sepdavi director Marcelo Alcázar pointed to the former manager of BoA, a current official of the Foreign Ministry, and another from Mi Teleférico as part of a “criminal organization” that, between 2015 and 2020, facilitated 37 encounters between the victim and the former president.

The La Paz Prosecutor’s Office admitted a criminal complaint against former president Evo Morales and eleven other individuals, accused as “perpetrators and accomplices” of human trafficking. According to the petition—admitted on December 30—the events occurred between 2015 and 2020. The alleged victim was identified as Noemí Meneses Chávez, who—according to the accusation—was flown from the age of 14 to different destinations within the country to engage in intimate encounters with the then head of state.

EL DEBER had access to the complaint, registered under the Unique Case Code (CUD) No. 201102012509349. The document was filed in 2020 by Marcelo Alcázar, former director of the Plurinational Service for Victim Assistance (Sepdavi), who declared himself a “political persecuted” person for having promoted the investigation during the government of Jeanine Áñez. In his statement to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Alcázar maintained that after initiating the inquiries, he was removed from his post and subjected to pressure for touching a case that directly involved the then president.

In the petition, the former official described the existence of an alleged “criminal organization” made up of individuals who, at the time, were authorities and public officials. The purpose of that network—according to the accusation—was to ensure logistics, transportation, and concealment of the encounters between Morales and the adolescent. According to the complaint, Meneses made at least 37 air trips to meet the former president while he was in office. Several of those trips were made without complying with the legal requirements demanded for minors.

Alcázar accused the current coca-growers’ leader of statutory rape, stating that he may have abused an adolescent. On that point, the document maintains that the victim herself acknowledged before the Police her link with Morales, although she stated that the formal relationship began on May 24, 2020, when she was 19 years old, already of legal age. She made that statement despite the age difference of more than four decades with the former leader of the Movement for Socialism (MAS). For the complainant, that argument does not invalidate the prior facts nor the charges of human trafficking that must be clarified.

The complaint requests that Morales and the other involved parties be prosecuted and punished with sentences that can reach up to 15 years in prison, in accordance with current Bolivian criminal legislation for this type of offense.

Among the accomplices, the petition mentions former Boliviana de Aviación (BoA) manager Ronald Casso, in addition to ten other individuals who, according to Alcázar, facilitated the transfer of the then minor from Cochabamba to other departments of the country. The list includes public officials and former public officials, as well as people linked to different state agencies.

Also mentioned are Rodolfo Castro, a current official at Mi Teleférico; Luis Hernán Soliz Morales, who in 2020 appeared as the former president’s personal assistant, dependent on the Ministry of the Presidency; and public servants linked to the Cochabamba Governor’s Office and the Health Fund. One name that stands out in the document is Carla Lorena Sandy, a lawyer who held various posts during MAS governments, including vice minister of Equal Opportunities in 2022 and unit director at the Ministry of Education. Currently, according to the complaint, she would be serving as Bolivia’s second secretary to the United Nations (UN), an entity where she recently promoted the declaration of the “International Day of Indigenous Women and Girls.”

Regarding Casso, the complaint recalls that he was BoA manager during the administrations of Morales and Luis Arce, and also mentions that his brother, a former police colonel, was an advisor to former Minister of Government Eduardo del Castillo, which, in the complainant’s view, reinforces the hypothesis of a network of influences that made it possible to facilitate the transfers.

Alcázar stated that associates of Morales purchased the tickets for Meneses and that, with internal support, security protocols were circumvented. The complaint indicates that neither BoA nor the air terminals of Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, and primarily La Paz required the permits for those trips.

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