With soaking beards

To “a plan by the Peruvian and Bolivian right” to arrest him in Peru, the former president and national head of the MAS, Evo Morales Ayma, attributed the judicial investigations launched in the neighboring country on the alleged existence of a “separatist plan” to which he is also linked to the cocalero leader, accused of violating the territorial integrity of Peru. “Thanks to the publications of some media and journalists who supported and were even part of the de facto government of Jeanine Áñez, we confirm that the plan of the Peruvian and Bolivian right is to arrest Evo as they arrested Pedro Castillo. Persecution to hide massacres, ”Morales wrote on his Twitter account. He did so after not having connected on Wednesday with the virtual hearing to which he had been summoned for the second time by the Puno Prosecutor’s Office, in the same process that is followed by the former governor of Puno, Germán Alejo and Vladimir Cerrón, secretary of Peru. Libre, political organization that brought Castillo to power.

His defense considers that he has exercised his legitimate right not to testify. Although if Evo Morales maintains his decision not to give his statements and continues to evade Peruvian justice, his legal situation could become complicated. After two absences, Peruvian legislation empowers the Prosecutor’s Office of the same country to activate a third and final summons “of degree or force” that if not answered could lead to his arrest. According to the former foreign minister of Peru, Luis Gonzáles Posada, Interpol would be in charge of arresting Morales “wherever he is” or if he ever set foot on Peruvian territory.

In October 1998, then-Chilean Senator Augusto Pinochet traveled to London to undergo surgery for a herniated disc. In the United Kingdom, he was imprisoned by order of the capture of the Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón, who sought to prosecute him for genocide, international terrorism, torture and disappearance of people in the dictatorship he led in Chile, between 1973 and 1990. Due to his age and failing health , the former dictator was not tried and in March 2000 he was released. Pinochet returned to his country where he died in 2006. It was a case of international political-legal relevance.

Peru recently extradited former President Alejandro Toledo from the US, who had evaded justice for six years on charges of corruption. He is in pretrial detention in the Lima Barbadillo prison where two other ex-presidents are also being held: Alberto Fujimori sentenced to 25 years in prison for serious and massive human rights violations and Pedro Castillo, accused of a coup.

Despite his attempts to minimize the event and its subsequent effects, it is clear that Evo Morales Ayma has gotten himself into trouble for his political interference in internal affairs of Peru. And in his case, an old popular sentence can apply: “When you see your neighbor’s beard peeling, put yours to soak.”