Bolivia - March 2024

The Public Prosecutor’s Office formally charged engineer Edgar Villegas with incitement to commit crimes, based on a complaint by Renán Cabezas, a deputy for the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), the country´s ruling Party. Villegas gained attention in 2019 for exposing discrepancies in election data, fuelling fraud allegations. Today he is accused of being partly responsible for the social upheaval that broke out in the country after the elections. That eventually led to Evo Morales stepping down and leaving the country. Critics and members of the opposition view Villegas’s indictment as political persecution, challenging Bolivia's democratic principles. Former President Jorge Quiroga called it vindictive, recalling the OAS's findings of irregularities during the elections.

Sources: Vision 360, Opinion, Los Tiempos, El Deber