ANKARA
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday welcomed the central bank’s decision to repay a $ 346.7 million loan and interest to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Morales congratulated President Luis Arce for the return of “surrender, the onerous and conditional credit assumed by the dictatorship against the interests of our people”.
Jeanine Anez’s interim government approved the loan last year amid a political crisis following Morales’ forced resignation in 2019.
“Bolivia is once again free, dignified and sovereign,” he added.
The Bolivian Central Bank said on Wednesday that the loan plus $ 4.7 million in interest had been returned to the IMF.
“This loan, in addition to being irregular and expensive due to financial conditions, generated additional costs and millions for the Bolivian state,” according to the bank.
Morales sought political asylum in Mexico and then Argentina after being forced to resign following elections which showed him he won an unprecedented third term,
He returned to Bolivia in early November after charges of terrorism and sedition, a process initiated by the Anez government, were overturned by a court in late October.
The court ruling came shortly after Morales’ party, the Movement for Socialism, won the October 18 presidential elections with 55.1 percent of the vote.
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