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On March 13th, the former President of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, was detained in the midst of a process for an alleged “coup d’état.”
In October 2019, presidential elections were held in Bolivia. As Evo Morales intended to be elected President for the fourth consecutive time, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, after strange situations that aroused suspicions among the Bolivian people, ruled that Morales -who had been in power for 13 years at that time- was the winner in the first round.
Meanwhile, the observation missions of the OAS and the European Union denounced irregularities and called for a second round.
After weeks of massive protests and after the commander of the Bolivian Armed Forces suggested he step aside, Morales resigned.
In the definitive absence of president and vice-president, Jeanine Áñez, at the time head of the Senate, assumed the interim presidency of Bolivia in a “constitutional succession.”
Today, Áñez is under arrest, accused of the crimes of sedition and terrorism. From jail, she has denounced being a victim of abuse and insists that what happened with Morales was not a coup and that the indigenous leader wanted to commit fraud.
El American spoke with the former President’s lawyer and her daughter, Carolina Ribera Áñez, who claims that her mother’s health condition is delicate and that she must be transferred to a hospital.
She also revealed that a nephew of the former President was tortured: “They beat him, they put a black bag over his head, they asphyxiated him trying to see how they could reach my mother.”
The former President’s daughter assures that those who captured her mother were dressed in civilian clothes, had no uniform, no badge or identification and added that the capture was a “direct order from Luis Arce”, the current president of Bolivia, former minister of Morales and one of his faithful disciples.
Meanwhile, Áñez’s lawyer points out how inexplicable it is that his client has been prosecuted in an ordinary criminal proceeding instead of a trial of responsibilities as would correspond to his position.
His astonishment is also evident in the declarations of the Minister of Justice, who admitted that they decided to initiate an ordinary criminal proceeding against former President Jeanine Áñez, because the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), the party of Morales and President Arce, does not have two thirds to bring forward a trial of responsibilities.
The daughter and the lawyer of the ex-president ask for justice and demand that Áñez can be urgently attended by medical professionals and that her life is not put at risk.
Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editor-in-chief of El American. Economist. Podcaster. Political and economic analysis of America. Colombian exile in the United States // Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editora en jefe de El American. Economista. Podcaster. Análisis político y económico de América. Colombiana exiliada en EE. UU.