New police commander pledges to execute arrest warrants against Evo Morales
Colonel Adrián Álvarez took over the command of the Bolivian Police with the promise to fulfil three outstanding judicial orders against former president Evo Morales.
Álvarez takes command and targets Morales: "We will comply with these orders"
Colonel Adrián Álvarez assumed the command of the Bolivian Police whilst generating controversy from the outset. According to bolivia.com, Álvarez publicly assured that, unlike his predecessor, he will execute the arrest orders in force against former president Evo Morales, of which three remain unfulfilled.
"We are going to request the corresponding reports regarding this matter and from there we will generate a strategy that allows us to address and comply with these orders, which are mandatory and subject to enforcement by the Bolivian Police," the new commander clarified.
Three accumulated judicial orders
The orders have different origins. The first was issued in October 2024 by the Tarija Public Prosecutor's Office after Morales failed to appear to testify. The second, from May 2026, comes from a judge who ruled after the former president's absence at the start of the trial for the charge of aggravated human trafficking; in that same proceeding, his restraining order and the freezing of bank accounts were also ordered.
The third order was issued in Santa Cruz as a result of a complaint presented by civic leadership and the Ministry of Government linked to a 53-day blockade. In that case, he faces charges of terrorism, armed uprising against state security, attacks on means of transport, criminal association, public incitement to crime, and attacks on public services.
Morales, entrenched in the Chapare
Since 2024, Morales has remained in the Chapare, in an area that international media reports describe as protected by coca growers. From that stronghold, the leader denies all accusations and attributes them to political motivations, whilst maintaining an active presence on social media and on the radio station Radio Kawsachun Coca.
The contrast with former commander Sokol
The contrast with the previous administration is marked. The then commander Mirko Sokol, in an interview broadcast in early August 2026 with journalist José Pomacusi, was explicit in downplaying the matter: he stated that the detention of Morales "is not a priority within the position of General Commander" and recalled that in Bolivia there are more than 18,000 arrest orders pending execution. Sokol added that Morales' case "is not the most important" and questioned the strength of the evidence in the human trafficking and trafficking proceeding.
Álvarez, by contrast, insists that judicial orders are mandatory for the institution to enforce and that a concrete plan will be drawn up to execute them. The colonel's announcement represents, in the terms of his own statement, the restoration of the rule of law against rulings that have gone unexecuted for months.
Source: Google News BO — Crime