Morales said in an interview published on Sunday that he wanted to leave Argentina, where is currently living in exile, even though an arrest warrant awaits him in Bolivia.

Morales had won Bolivia’s presidential election in October 2019, but the military and opposition claimed that the elections had been rigged, inciting street protests.

In an apparent bid to prevent the country from plunging into chaos, Morales decided to resign a month later and leave the country. He says his forced resignation was the result of a US-engineered coup d’etat.

In the interview with the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, Morales reiterated that his replacement by acting president Jeanine Anez amounted to a putsch.

“What we lost with the coup we will recover on May 3 in democracy,” Morales said.

The ex-president said he would run for a seat in the Senate and declared himself a “victim of the United States” empire.

“I am sure the people of Bolivia are crying for me to return,” added Morales, referring to his strong popular base at home.

Morales, however, is now barred from standing as a candidate in the May ballot.

A judge in Bolivia on Sunday ordered six months of preventive detention to Morales’s legal representative handling his nomination process to stand as a legislator in the May ballot.

It is not the first time that Morales speaks of his willingness to go back home. He said back in November 2019 that the US — “just like the coup-mongering Bolivian right-wing” — was against his return, and that while he had a right to go back, he wouldn’t seek the presidency if he did.

Meanwhile, a judicial source told journalists that Judge Armando Zeballos had ordered the detention of Patricia Hermosa, Morales’s former cabinet chief, on charges of sedition, terrorism, and financing of terrorism.

In the meantime, the presidential candidate for Morales’s Movement for Socialism (MAS), who returned to Bolivia last Tuesday, was immediately served with a subpoena.

Bolivia’s former economy minister Luis Arce is accused of a breach of duties and embezzlement during his ministerial tenure.

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Bolivia’s Evo Morales called for the UN mediation and possibly Pope Francis, to mediate in the Andean nation’s political crisis following his ouster as president in what he called a coup d’etat that forced him into exile in Mexico.

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Protests in the country’s main city La Paz broke out Wednesday amid calls from Morales and his backers to reject newly declared interim president Jeanine Anez.

Protesters carrying the indigenous flag were met by riot police, and the two sides engaged in brief confrontations. Some were seen throwing rocks at authorities, while police used tear gas to disperse those who had gathered.

Speaking at a news conference thousands of miles away in Mexico City, where he was granted political asylum, Morales warns Bolivian leaders and claimed the current unrest was part of an anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle that indigenous Bolivians have been fighting for years.

Morales expressed his will to return to Bolivia if the “people ask for it” and cautioned those currently in charge in his home country not to stain themselves “with the blood of the people.”

Bolivia has been rocked by political unrest and mass protests since reports of electoral irregularities during general elections on October 20. Morales and his political party were accused of rigging the vote, a charge the longtime leftist Bolivian leader denies.

Morales, who resigned Sunday from his post after nearly 14 years in power, claims he is the victim of a coup orchestrated by right-wing politicians and the country’s armed forces. The opposition in Bolivia maintain the country is engaged in a fight for “democracy and peace.”

Morales had long enjoyed support among many for his leftist policies to reduce poverty and support indigenous Bolivians. Indigenous people make up some 20% of Bolivia’s population, while 68% of the country has some Amerindian ancestry, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Rigoberta Menchu, one of Latin America’s most prominent indigenous rights activists, came out in support of Morales on Twitter Wednesday.

“We energetically condemn the coup d’etat in Bolivia, perpetrated by the army and oligarchs opposed to the government of our brother President Evo Morales,” said Menchu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in her home country of Guatemala.

In the Morales stronghold of El Alto, not far from La Paz, things were much calmer. While many people there said they believed Morales’ ouster was, in fact, a coup, some thought it was time to hold new elections — but this time with new candidates, and preferably younger ones.

Anez, 52, appointed herself interim president on Tuesday. She said that she was next in the line of succession after the three people ahead of her quit amid the political unrest, but Morales’ allies left the legislative chamber during the vote — leaving her short of the legal minimum number of lawmakers required to appoint her.

Anez has since named members of her cabinet and appointed new people to lead the armed forces.

In her first address to the nation as interim President on Wednesday, she stressed that her position is “strictly provisional” and she plans to “call for new general elections in the earliest possible time.”

“This is a transitional government,” Anez said in an interview with CNN. “Obviously, as soon as we can, we will call general elections so the Bolivian people can have a president elected by us in a democratic manner.”

The United States threw its support behind Anez Wednesday, officially recognizing her government.

Washington’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, congratulated the interim Bolivian President in a statement Wednesday and called “on all parties to protect democracy during the coming weeks and to refrain from violent acts against fellow citizens and their property.”

Morales was quick to denounce the decision by the Trump administration to recognize the Anez government.

“This coup d’etat that has triggered the death of my Bolivian brothers is a political and economic plot that came from the US,” Morales said Wednesday.

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Jeanine Anez, Bolivian opposition leader claims presidency even though she lacked a quorum because of a boycott by Morales’ Movement for Socialism party. Without being sworn in by anyone, she then appeared on a balcony of the old presidential palace wearing the presidential sash and holding a Bible in her hand.

“My commitment is to return democracy and tranquility to the country,” she said. “They can never again steal our vote.”

It was uncertain how much support Añez could count on from other power centers in her bid to replace Morales, who stepped down Sunday under pressure from Bolivia’s military following weeks of violent protests fed by allegations of electoral fraud in the Oct. 20 presidential election.

Some Bolivians quickly took to the streets cheering and waving national flags in opposition strongholds like the cities of Santa Cruz and Cochabamba, but angry Morales’ supporters tried to reach the Congress building in La Paz screaming, “She must quit!” Police and soldiers fired tear gas trying to disperse the crowd and detained some demonstrators.

Morales, who sought to transform Bolivia as its first indigenous president, had faced weeks of widespread outrage over his claim to have won the election outright. He stepped down soon after an Organization of American States audit reported widespread irregularities in the vote count.

He arrived in Mexico on Tuesday under a grant of asylum. But his resignation still needed to be approved by both houses of Congress, and lawmakers could not assemble the numbers needed for formal sessions.

Anez, a 52-year-old lawmaker, women’s rights activist and television presenter, forged ahead anyway, arguing that Bolivia could not wait and be left in a power vacuum. After Morales quit, resignations by allies left vacancies in the only posts listed by the constitution as presidential successors — the vice president, the head of the Senate and the leader of the lower house.

Jeanine Anez was a second-tier opposition figure until Morales resigned Sunday after nearly 14 years in power, the longest presidential reign ever in Bolivia.

From the start, she tried to set differences with the socialist leader. She greeted supporters at an old palace instead of the nearby modern 26-story presidential palace with a heliport that was built by Morales and that his foes had criticized as one of his excesses. She also carried a Bible, which had been banned by Morales from the presidential palace.

Morales said on Twitter from Mexico that Anez’s “self-proclamation” was an affront to constitutional government. “Bolivia is suffering an assault on the power of the people,” he wrote.

Even before Anez acted, thousands of his supporters were in the streets of the capital in peaceful demonstrations clamoring for his return. Military fighter jets flew repeatedly over La Paz in a show of force that infuriated Morales loyalists who were blocked by police and soldiers from marching to the main square.

“We’re not afraid!” Shouted demonstrators, who believe Morales’ departure was a coup d’etat and an act of discrimination against Bolivia’s indigenous communities.

“Evo was like a father to me. We had a voice, we had rights,” said Maria Apasa, who like Morales is a member of the Aymara indigenous group, AP reported.

Morales’ detractors accused him of becoming increasingly authoritarian and rigging the election.

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Mousavi described any ‘illegal’ change of governments, like “quasi-coup” against Morales, especially with foreign meddling as “unacceptable”, according to the Foreign Ministry’s official website.

He said Iran believes that any change should reflect the will of people through ballot boxes and within the framework of the law of the land.

The Iranian official expressed hope that Bolivian people and political groups would use their country’s political and legal capacities to reach a peaceful solution to the situation in that country without resorting to violence and conflict.

Bolivia has been the scene of violent anti-government protests in recent weeks following the disputed re-election of now-in-exile president Evo Morales who departed for Mexico on Monday after accepting an offer of political asylum in the wake of what he has described as a “coup” against him by the country’s military and opposition.

Morales, in power for nearly 14 years, said in televised comments earlier that he would submit his resignation letter to help restore stability, though he aimed barbs at what he called a “civic coup” and later said police planned to arrest him.

“I am resigning, sending my letter of resignation to the Legislative Assembly,” Morales said, adding that it was his “obligation as indigenous president and president of all Bolivians to seek peace.”

However, underscoring the ongoing tensions, Morales later said on Twitter that the police had an “illegal” warrant for his arrest and that “violent groups” had attacked his home.

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Morales announced in a tweet on Monday that he had boarded a plane to Mexico, where he had been granted asylum after his resignation. Iran News quotes the news of PressTV.

The announcement came after the Organization of American States (OAS) delivered a report alleging irregularities during the October presidential election in Bolivia, which Morales had won.

That prompted some of Morales’ ruling party allies to relinquish power and the army to urge the leftist leader to resign, which he agreed to do even as he stressed that his electoral victory had been valid.

Morales secured an outright win in the presidential election on October 20, while his rival and the head of the Civic Community opposition party, Carlos Mesa, refused to recognize the results of the vote.

Mesa’s refusal to concede defeat initiated weeks of violent protests in the capital, La Paz, and in El Alto and other Bolivian cities.

Still, and after Morales’ departure, Bolivia’s military and security forces were deployed in major cities on Monday night following a day of violence and looting, with scuffles on the streets.

Clashes between police and Morales’ supporters reportedly left some 20 people injured.

The 60-year-old president had earlier urged his supporters to resist the “dark powers” that had forced him to step down.

Aymara, a group from the indigenous community of Red Ponchos, said they were marching to La Paz to express their support for Morales, the country’s first indigenous president.

Morales’ opponents, however, celebrated across Bolivia, setting off fireworks and waving national flags, according to local media reports.

The commander of Bolivia’s armed forces ordered troops to conduct joint operations with police to prevent violent clashes.

Mixed reactions to Bolivian leader’s resignation

Meanwhile, people took to the streets of the Argentinean capital, Buenos Aires, on Monday to protest against Morales’ forced resignation.

Nicaragua and Venezuela also expressed solidarity with the leftist leader.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said a “wave of violence unleashed by the opposition” had prevented the “presidential mandate of Evo Morales” from being completed.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel said in a tweet that what happened in Bolivia had been “a violent and cowardly coup d’etat against democracy.”

US President Donald Trump described the move as “a significant moment for democracy in the Western Hemisphere.”

Snap vote around the corner

Bolivia’s deputy senate speaker, Jeanine Anez, who is constitutionally in line to become interim president, has pledged to call fresh elections to restore calm to the Latin American country.

The OAS is scheduled to hold a special meeting on the situation in Bolivia at its Washington headquarters on Tuesday.

The organization also issued an urgent call for the Bolivian assembly to meet “to ensure the functioning of institutions and to name new electoral authorities to guarantee a new electoral process.”

Meanwhile, Morales has vowed to return “with more strength and energy.”

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Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Sunday he was resigning to ease violence that has gripped the South American nation since a disputed election, but he stoked fears of more unrest by saying he was the victim of a “coup” and faced arrest.

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