The former president of Bolivia Evo Morales (2006 – 2019) will strengthen his security in the Tropic of Cochabamba, his political and union stronghold, with the presence of young foreigners who formed the International Committee on Defense and Solidarity with the former president, two of its leaders reported this Sunday.

“We are going to have vigil activities in defense of Evo Morales (…) We came to Lauca Ñ and here we are going to be with several activities but also in (the central city of) Cochabamba where we will give talks from the committee,” said the university student of Argentina María Macedo, interviewed on the Kawsachun Coca radio, related to Morales.

Macedo together with the Chilean Felipe Barriga arrived at the town of Lauca Ñ, where the former president has been protected by hundreds of coca growers and peasants since November 2024.

The student emphasized that she and her partner arrived in Bolivia “on their own free will” and that they will follow Morales out of “conviction and loyalty.”

“I was surprised (the news of) that there was a committee of defense and solidarity with Evo, at first I didn’t believe so much, time goes by, it was confirmed and I am totally convinced that we have some brothers and sisters outside Bolivia who support our policy,” Morales said.

The former governor ceased to be the president of the official Movement to Socialism (MAS) in November 2024, after the judicial and electoral bodies validated a congress held in May 2024 by the ‘arcista’ faction, as the followers of President Luis Arce are known, who elected as the new leader of the party the peasant leader Grover García, related to the Government.

Despite these resolutions, Morales announced that he will go to the general elections in August as a “single candidate” united with the Front for Victory (FPV) party, after resigning from the MAS after 30 years of leadership.

Macedo indicated that some delegations of foreign students and social movements will arrive in the coming weeks from Mexico, Paraguay, Argentina, Peru and Chile to support the former president.

“We will continue here until the elections are held and until our leader assumes the Presidency,” said the student of the Federal University of Latin American Integration.

Macedo indicated that the committee he represents is against the “political persecution” that Morales “suffers”, so they will accompany him in Lauca Ñ and will organize themselves in the city of Cochabamba.

The Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the former president for aggravated human trafficking, in which he is accused of having had a relationship with a minor with whom he would have had a child in 2016 in the southern region of Tarija, when he held the Presidency.

In October, the arrest warrant was issued against Morales, which was ratified in February of this year, however the Police has not yet executed it.

The Justice also issued the declaration of rebellion against the former governor, for not appearing to two precautionary hearings before a court, forbade him to leave the country, ordered the preventive annotation of his assets and the freezing of his bank accounts.

Morales’ followers carry out permanent vigils in all the populations of the Tropic of Cochabamba, they announced that they will dig wells to prevent the landing of planes or helicopters in the area and in recent days they were seen armed with sticks and stones in different populations.

The judicial process aggravates the relationship between Morales and President Luis Arce, distanced since the end of 2021 due to differences in the administration of the State and the control of the MAS.

The Central Electoral Office of Romania rejected this Sunday the candidacy of the pro-Russian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu for the presidential elections of May 4 and in which he started as the favorite.

After this decision, a period of 24 hours is opened to file appeals with the Constitutional Court, which has an additional 48 hours to issue a ruling. This means that the final decision could be known on Wednesday night.

Georgescu won against all odds the first round of the Romanian presidential elections on November 24, subsequently annulled by the Constitutional Court for indications of illegal financing and Russian interference.

Georgescu’s supporters gathered in front of the Central Electoral Office and reacted violently, breaking the fences installed by the Police to cordon off the building.

“A direct blow to the heart of world democracy!”, said Georgescu on the social network X when he learned of the decision and added: “Europe is now a dictatorship, Romania is under tyranny!”

The leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), George Simion, whose ultra-nationalist and Eurosceptic party is currently the main opposition force in the country, described the rejection of Georgescu’s candidacy as an undemocratic act.

“It is a continuation of the coup d’état of December 6,” he wrote on Facebook in reference to the date on which the Constitutional Court annulled the presidential elections.

Georgescu, relatively little known in Romania until a few months ago, won in the first round thanks to a campaign on social networks, especially TikTok, in which he claimed not to have invested anything.

His message against traditional parties attracted above all young voters and voters from rural areas, disenchanted with corruption and the low standard of living in the country of 19 million inhabitants bordering Ukraine.

The leader of the ultra-nationalist party POT, Anamaria Gavrilă, also denounced the decision, said that Romania is “a dictatorship” and questioned the vote of the 14 members of the Central Electoral Office.

According to sources cited by the Romanian newspaper G4Media, the candidacy was rejected for both formal and substantive reasons.

One of the determining factors was the declaration of property presented by Georgescu, which presented inconsistencies compared to the one he had delivered in the November elections.

The ultra-nationalist candidate, who has defended an approach to Russia and has questioned that Ukraine was a state, defends a reactionary ideology and in the past praised Romanian fascist leaders responsible for the Holocaust in the country during World War II.

In the latest polls, Georgescu was the favorite for the elections, monopolizing more than 35% of the vote, which guaranteed him to reach the second round.

At the end of February, the Romanian Prosecutor’s Office accused him of six crimes, including committing actions against the constitutional order and creating a fascist and anti-Semitic organization.

The Prosecutor’s Office announced the charges after interrogating him for more than four hours and in addition to the aforementioned crimes he was suspected of continued falsehood about his assets and the financing of his campaign.

The government of Venezuela privately warned the government of Donald Trump that it will not accept its own citizens being deported, following the United States’ decision to end Chevron’s license to operate in the Caribbean country, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

The newspaper, citing sources familiar with the matter, notes that the Venezuelan repatriation agreement is becoming strained after a January meeting between Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell and the Chavista leader Nicolás Maduro, who is not recognized as president by the U.S. The Chevron issue has exacerbated tensions.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration ended Chevron’s license in Venezuela and gave the company a month, until April 3, to leave the country after President Trump criticized Maduro for not accelerating the deportation of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. as quickly as expected.

The WSJ indicates that Venezuela’s private warning could further hinder Trump’s promised mass deportation campaignof undocumented immigrants, which his administration has already had to pause due to the high costs of using military planes for repatriation flights.