Former Bolivian president Evo Morales disappeared from public view a month after condemning a US attack on Venezuela. Though he had been living openly in the Chapare despite an outstanding arrest warrant, he has not appeared on his radio show or at public events. Allies say he is recovering from dengue; critics claim he fled abroad. The episode unfolds as President Rodrigo Paz Pereira seeks closer ties with the US and the possible return of the DEA could complicate Morales’s legal and political situation.
Where’s Evo? Bolivia’s Ex‑President Vanishes After Condemning US Strike — Mystery Deepens
Men wearing masks depicting the former Bolivian president Evo Morales take part in the celebrations marking the Day of the Plurinational State, in Shinaota, Bolivia, on 23 January.Photograph: Pablo Rivera/AFP/Getty Images(Photograph: Pablo Rivera/AFP/Getty Images)
For more than a year Evo Morales lived openly in the Chapare — a coca‑producing region in central Bolivia — despite an outstanding arrest warrant. He attended rallies, met foreign journalists and even voted in the 2025 presidential election. But following a US attack on Venezuela and the detention of Nicolás Maduro, Morales condemned the strike and then abruptly disappeared from public view. A month later, his whereabouts remain unknown.
Disappearance and Immediate Reactions
Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, denounced the Caracas attack as a "brutal imperial aggression" on social media and on his Sunday radio programme broadcast from the Chapare. He has since missed four editions of that show and been absent from the public events he normally attends. Supporters say he is ill with dengue; critics and some opposition figures claim he may have fled abroad.
Legal Claims and Local Protection
Morales faces an outstanding arrest warrant issued amid serious allegations that include human trafficking and claims he fathered a child with a 15‑year‑old girl during his 2016 presidency. Morales denies the accusations and calls them political persecution. Since October 2024 he had been based in a remote village where hundreds of coca growers physically blocked police attempts to execute the warrant.
Political Context
The disappearance comes as centre‑right president Rodrigo Paz Pereira strengthens ties with the United States to seek economic support amid a severe dollar shortage. One key objective for Paz Pereira is to facilitate the return of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), expelled in 2008 after violent operations in the Chapare that provoked clashes and multiple deaths. That prospect alarms Morales’s allies and coca‑growing communities.
Theories, Claims and Official Statements
Allies and coca‑grower leaders say Morales is recovering from dengue and will return to public life; on his programme’s first broadcast without him the presenter said he had "caught dengue." Former senator Leonardo Loza offered a cryptic comment that Morales was "in some little corner of our Patria Grande." A conservative MP, Edgar Zegarra Bernal, claimed Morales was in Mexico but provided no evidence and demanded the government explain why the arrest warrant has not been enforced.
"Either Morales has fled or he is more seriously ill — it is not typical of him to disappear from the media agenda for this long," said political analyst José Orlando Peralta.
Implications
Morales continues to post criticisms of the Paz Pereira government on social media, though analysts note such posts do not confirm his physical location. If the DEA is allowed back into Bolivia, tensions over coca‑control efforts and Morales’s political future could intensify. For now, uncertainty persists: supporters promise a surprise return, opponents press for enforcement of legal proceedings, and investigators and the public await clearer evidence about where Morales is and why he vanished from the public eye.
Additional reporting by Thomas Graham in Mexico City.
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