Morales vows no surrender in bid to reclaim Bolivian presidency
In an interview in his central Bolivian stronghold of Cochabamba, a defiant Morales, 65, said he did not accept a court ruling precluding him from making a comeback.
Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president who was in office from 2006 to 2019, had been in hiding since October when a court issued a warrant for his arrest over an alleged relationship with a 15-year-old girl while he was president.
On Wednesday, a judge in the eastern city of Santa Cruz ordered that the charges be dropped, ruling that a previous investigation had already cleared Morales of wrongdoing. The arrest warrant was also scrapped.
"Justice has arrived," Morales said on X.
The president of Bolivia's judicial council, Manuel Baptista, immediately launched a review of the court's decision, but Morales's lawyer Jorge Perez said his client's "constitutional rights have been restored" and he could travel anew.
Before the ruling, Morales was already planning a trip to La Paz next month to register his candidacy for presidential elections in August.
"It's going to be a big convoy (of supporters)," he told AFP at the headquarters of the country's powerful coca growers' union, which he once led, in the central town of Lauca Ene.
No victim, 'no crime'
Prosecutors had accused Morales of fathering a daughter with a minor in 2015, and said her parents consented to the relationship in return for favors.
Despite his whereabouts being widely known, police never attempted to capture the former coca farmer, who was guarded around the clock by dozens of Indigenous supporters armed with spears.
"Without a victim, there is no crime. Neither the young girl nor her relatives have filed a complaint," Morales told AFP in the interview conducted before the charges were dropped.
He claims the case against him was part of a plot by former ally-turned-rival President Luis Arce to keep him from returning to power.
In October, Morales accused state agents of trying to kill him, sharing a video online that showed him travelling in a truck that had been raked with gunfire.
On Monday, the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party -- which Morales led for 26 years -- nominated Arce as its electoral candidate.
Morales has not said under which party banner he will run.
Large following
Known to Bolivians simply as "Evo," Morales rose from dire poverty to become a crusading left-wing president who oversaw a decade of strong economic growth and dramatic poverty reduction.
He retains a large following in the South American country, particularly among Indigenous communities.
But his refusal to give up power in 2019, after three terms in office, led to a tumultuous exit that tainted his legacy.
Since then, the Constitutional Court has upheld Bolivia's constitutional two-term limit, which Morales had previously managed to evade.
Morales rejects the validity of that ruling.
"There is no legal argument to disqualify me," he insisted.
Visitors to Lauca Ene have to pass through several checkpoints erected by Morales's guards, and have their bags searched.
Despite being a wanted man, Morales himself travelled freely in the wider Cochabamba department over the past seven months, according to sources close to him.
While Morales faces an uphill battle to retake the presidency, Arce is struggling too, with opinion polls showing him failing to win reelection due to a severe economic crisis.
Acute shortages of foreign currency, fuel, medicine and food have caused prices to rocket, prompting numerous protests.
"Lucho Arce will go down as one of the worst presidents in our democratic history," Morales claimed, calling the president by his nickname.