La Paz, August 16 (RHC)-- Esther Morales, the 70-year-old sister of former Bolivian President Evo Morales, has died of COVID-19, according to news media sources in the Bolivian capital of La Paz.

"She was like my mother," wrote Morales on social media.  Evo was forced to resign in November last year in a military-supported coup, orchestrated by the United States.  

Evo Morales, who is in exile in Buenos Aires, Argentina, faces arrest if he returns to Bolivia. He blamed "racism and political persecution" for preventing him from visiting his sister in a hospital in Oruro, southeast of La Paz.

In the last two weeks, supporters of the Movement towards Socialism set up nationwide blockades to protest the recent postponement of elections as Bolivia struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.