Evo Morales returns to Argentina after Cuba medical care

Former Bolivian president Evo Morales said Sunday that he is returning to Argentina from Cuba, where he had gone for medical treatment last week.

"I feel very healthy. I am still in Cuba, but today is my return trip to Argentina," Morales said by telephone to Bolivia's Radio Kawaschum Coca (RKC) – owned by the coca planters union to which he belongs.

Morales, 60, travelled to Cuba from Buenos Aires on Monday for medical treatment. He has been living in Argentina after resigning as Bolivia's president in November and fleeing following three weeks of protests against his controversial re-election in a poll the OrganiSation of American States said was rigged.

He first sought asylum in Mexico and then settled a month later in Argentina.

Morales is standing as a Senate candidate in Bolivia's May 3 general election but faces arrest if he returns.

He told the radio station he would be "in a planning meeting" for the election with leaders from his Movement for Socialism (MAS) party.

The interim government of President Jeanine Añez accuses him of sedition and terrorism over an audio recording in which he allegedly urges supporters to lay siege to major cities including La Paz.

Since resigning under pressure from the Bolivian military, Morales has spent his time among left-wing allies in Mexico, Cuba and Argentina. He is barred from standing for president in May's election.

From his exile in Argentina, Morales regularly rails against what he claims was a US-backed coup to remove him from office.

– TIMES/AFP