RIO DE JANEIRO BRAZIL – Former Bolivian President Evo Morales (far-left) called Wednesday for former Argentine President Mauricio Macri (center-right) to be tried for sending ammunition and anti-riot material to Bolivia for the repression of protests in that country in November 2019 after his departure from power.
“Macri should be investigated and tried for his role in the coup. Whether it is appropriate to extradite him will be seen by the courts. There can be no more presidents who support coups,” Morales said in statements to El Destape radio.
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He added that he did not speak with Macri “in the days of the coup”, which occurred a few months before the end of Macri’s term and the inauguration of Alberto Fernández (left), in December 2019, after which Morales moved to Argentina, where he resided until the Bolivian elections of 2020, which returned his party to power.
“I respected Macri as a president elected by the vote. But now I see that he sent war material. It cannot be understood that they have that mentality”, he added.
He also valued that “it is necessary to investigate if the weapons sent by Macri killed Bolivians.”
“Macri says that they were sent to protect the embassy, but then why are the Armed Forces grateful for the support? (…) The Forces commanders had asked me to buy bullets for them because they did not have enough. But no. My work has always been for life,” he stressed.
The material allegedly arrived in a plane of the Argentine Air Force that arrived in La Paz on November 13, 2019. A group of National Gendarmerie (Argentine border police) members was detached to provide security to the Argentine embassy in Bolivia.
The Argentine troops arrived in La Paz one day after Jeanine Áñez assumed the Presidency of Bolivia after Evo Morales left power on November 10, denouncing he was the victim of a coup d’état.
According to the administrative investigation carried out by the Argentine Government, official records show the exit of firearms, ammunition, bulletproof vests, pepper spray, and hand grenades of harassment gas, among other materials.
According to the investigation, “inconsistencies” were detected with respect to the material recorded in the records of the Bolivian Police.