The public appearance ended rumors that Morales had fled the country after being abducted by Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
listen to this article2 minutes
information
Published February 20, 2026
Bolivia’s longtime socialist leader Evo Morales has reappeared in his political stronghold in central Bolivia’s Chapare region after an unexplained absence for nearly seven weeks.
His public appearance Thursday in the town of Chimore ended widespread speculation that he had fled the country following the United States’ abduction of ally Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Radio Causatun Coca, a media outlet run by Morales’ coca growers’ union, published footage of the former leader smiling in dark sunglasses as he arrived at the stadium on a tractor to address his supporters.
Mr. Morales endorsed candidates in next month’s local elections and harshly criticized the United States under President Donald Trump for wanting to “eliminate all left-wing parties in Latin America.”
Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, who served from 2006 until his difficult 2019 expulsion and subsequent self-imposed exile, said he suffered “surprising” complications after contracting chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease that causes fever and severe joint pain for which there is no treatment.
He dismissed rumors he was planning to flee the country and vowed to remain in Bolivia despite threats of arrest under conservative President Rodrigo Paz, whose elections last October ended nearly two decades of rule by Morales’s Socialist Movement party.
For the past year, the former president has evaded arrest warrants on human trafficking charges, which he denies.
In December, one month after Paz took office, Bolivian authorities arrested former President Luis Arce as part of a corruption investigation.
The charges focus on Arce’s time as economy minister under Morales, where authorities say he oversaw the diversion of about $700 million from a national fund set up to channel natural gas revenues to development projects for indigenous peoples and small farmers.
Since taking office, Mr. Paz’s recent efforts to restore diplomatic relations with Washington and reinstate the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency some 17 years after Mr. Morales expelled American drug enforcement officials have also rattled the coca-growing region, a bastion of support for Mr. Morales.
