- Title: Advocates of Morales's former lover in Bolivia are arrested
- Date: 18th May 2016
- Summary: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA (MAY 17, 2016) (REUTERS) CLOSE-UP OF EXTERIOR OF BOLIVIAN PUBLIC PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
- Embargoed: 2nd June 2016 03:47
- Keywords: Gabriela Zapata Evo Morales CAMC Engineering corruption
- Location: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
- City: LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
- Country: Bolivia
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0024I772O3
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: QUALITY AS INCOMING
The ongoing scandal in Bolivia involving a former lover of leftist President Evo Morales entered a new phase Tuesday (May 17) with the arrest of the former lover's family and attorney.
Morales's ex-girlfriend Gabriela Zapata was detained back in February as part of an investigation into alleged corruption and influence peddling involving a Chinese company doing business in Bolivia. Morales admitted then that he had a secret relationship with Zapata.
Suspicion remains over whether a love child or two emerged from the relationship. He charges he had been informed a child had died.
Unmarried, Morales has seen his personal life the subject of speculation in the South American country. He has been quoted as saying he is "married to Bolivia".
Zapata worked as a commercial manager for the Chinese company CAMC Engineering (CAMCE) when she was arrested. In recent years the company won lucrative government contracts with Morales' government said to be worth $566 million dollars, according to local media reports.
And on the day before her attorney Eduardo Leon was reportedly going to present proof of her meetings with government ministers regarding the contracts, he too was arrested on the charge of influence peddling. Zapata's aunt, Pilar Guzman, has also been arrested.
Leon said the detention was an act of political retribution.
"Here the political power, the corruption wants to quiet not just Eduardo Leon but the people. I want to say well that Eduardo Leon is not malevolent nor a delinquent. He has never killed anyone. All that's being done is a political act of intimidation, and they say it's justified. I will pay the price I have to, as a man, a father, and with my face to the public," Leon told reporters.
He also affirmed the existence of offspring in spite of new media reports to the contrary.
"It's been proven, the child exists," he said.
For her part, Zapata appeared on the radio show, "Cabildeo," hosted by Amalia Pando, to defend herself
"The first lie is that never in 2007, if I had informed him that his child was dead. The relationship we had was from 2009 to 2010. That can be corroborated by Waldo Albarracin. In that year, I looked to him because there was an issue of family violence. And that can be corroborated as there was an account in the Mercantil bank in which he made deposits for the costs and maintenance of the child. No lawyer is going to demonstrate tomorrow with proofs. There are four sites that I entered of the president and ministries. And the authorities have entered my house because they want to wash their hands with not even the people that don't even have anything to do with us. Now Ms. Cristina Choque who is accused of everything, and that we are all mixed up with a network of cons, please. Here we are going to declare that proofs must be shown of who are the true traffickers of influence. Mr. Cesar Navarro who is supposedly my friend, and has not done anything for me, and he is the one who is the most quiet right now. I am going to explain what has happened with the Comibol, with the potassium plants, and who the issue of Syno Steel ought to be explained to the country," she said, referring to myriad contracts in question.
The timing of the pair's relationship has in media reports been placed from 2005 to 2007.
Zapata has reportedly also written a letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights saying her life "life is in danger" without getting into specifics.
Morales has been president since 2006 and his current term runs out in 2020. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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