Bolivia: Jeanine Áñez was sentenced to 10 years in prison

Former interim president of Bolivia Jeanine Áñez was sentenced on Friday to ten years in prison for crimes of breach of duties and resolutions contrary to the Constitution and the laws, at the conclusion of the process of the so-called “coup d’état II case”, in which his decision to take up the position of Head of State in November 2019 was analyzed.

The sentence was the conclusion of a long process, with numerous interruptions – some technical and others related to Áñez’s health – and constitutes the first important resolution on the forced exit from power of the then president Evo Morales and of the de facto government which instead took over.

Before hearing the judge’s decision, in her last words, Áñez stated that she was subjected to a “mock trial”, He stressed that he would have acted “the same way” if the circumstances were repeated for which he assumed the presidency and denounced that the Court “the political power has asked for an express trial to have an express sentence”.

In this case, called Coup d’état II, in which Áñez and former police and military chiefs were prosecuted for decisions contrary to the Constitution, the former senator was investigated for the actions she took when she was second vice president of the upper house in irregularly assume the Presidency of the State.

For the defense of Áñez, the former president should not have been judged by ordinary means, but rather there should have been an accountability trial in Congressbut the complainants argued that the management’s previous actions had been tried.

“At no time did I violate the political constitution of the state or I have issued contrary regulations or orders. And this has been highlighted in all the statements and in all the evidence. I was subjected to these very tiring hours of trial because the political power asked for an express trial to have an express sentence “, defended Áñez.

The court had to go to the Miraflores prison to hear it and then did the same to the San Pedro prison for the turn of former commanders Flavio Arce and pastor Mendieta.

Áñez complained that she was denied “absolutely everything” during the trial, complained about the “delicacies” of the court, which rejected the evidence of her defense and attributed these attitudes to the need to “have a fast track to have a conviction “.

He insisted that in 2019 there was a “power vacuum” and stressed that he had not moved “not a finger” to take on the Executive.

The former president warned that the Constitutional Court statement that approved his transitional governmentthe memories of the Episcopal Conference on a meeting held at the headquarters of the Catholic University and the report of the Organization of American States (OAS) on the failed elections of 2019.

“I had the government, but I never had the power. I had blocks in the (Legislative) Assembly; it was simply a transitional government. In a year they could have filed a complaint in the Senate, but they didn’t; We work in coordination “, she remarked.

And I add: “Bolivia knows that I have not committed these crimes. Bolivia he knows that I was a consequence of everything that happened in 2019. Anyone who violated the Constitution, disrespecting even a referendum, is happy and free to engage in politics. For him there is impunity. This is the justice we have in Bolivia “.

The reference was to former president Evo Moralesof which he did not mention, having lost a popular consultation on the possibility of a new mandate.

Vigils were held in La Paz, Cochabamba and Sucre for the victims of the dictatorship and for the supporters of the ruling party, pending the sentence.

The four accusing parties, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Government Ministry, the Attorney General and the head of the Senate, Andrónico Rodríguez, had agreed on a request for 15 years of imprisonment.

When the ruling was still unknown, a group of about 20 former presidents of Latin America and Spain described it as “arbitrary, abusive, illegal and unconstitutional“the process, and believed that the UN, the OAS and the EU should repudiate it.

Áñez has two other pending trials: the “Colpo di Stato I case”, for his acts as president, and another for the deaths that occurred during the phone calls Sacaba and Senkata massacresin which street protests were suppressed.

GRB