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Interpol refuses to issue warrant for Bolivia’s Evo Morales - prosecution

Interpol views this as a political crime, said Prosecutor General Juan Lanchipa

BUENOS AIRES, October 1. /TASS/. The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has confirmed that it will not issue an arrest warrant for Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales under the request of the national interim government, Prosecutor General Juan Lanchipa said Wednesday.

"When the case includes the call for a coup, like in this case, Interpol views this as a political crime. We were informed that an arrest is not possible until the crime is treated differently," El Deber quoted him as saying.

Earlier, the Prosecutor General’s Office indicted Morales on charges of call for coup, terrorism and its financing and requested that he be arrested. Last year, similar measures were taken, but Interpol again refused to issue a warrant for Morales who is now in Argentina after this country granted him asylum.

Last November, Bolivian Foreign Minister Arturo Murillo revealed that the authorities had obtained a recording of Morales talking to one of his supporters, as the ex-leader was giving advice how to encircle La Paz. The minister interpreted these actions by Morales as terrorism and a crime against humanity. Meanwhile, the former leader himself rejects the idea that he was calling for food blockades of cities, slamming the recording as fake.