Some say that she is a political prisoner, others accuse her of being a coup plotter. The trial against the former interim president of bolivia Jeanine Añez for an alleged coup d’état in 2019 against his predecessor, Evo Morales, started this Thursday amid controversies.
The 54-year-old former president, imprisoned in La Paz for 11 months and on a hunger strike since Wednesday, is being tried along with eight former soldiers.
He is accused of having unconstitutionally assumed the presidency in November 2019 after the resignation of Morales (2006-2019) amid massive protests for alleged electoral fraud denounced by the Organization of American States (OAS).
“I assumed the presidency of Bolivia without asking for it, without looking for it, much less expecting it… with the sole mission of calling elections and pacifying the country in upheaval,” the former president, who governed between 2019 and 2020, said on Tuesday in a letter that he signed as a “political prisoner”.
Her lawyer Luis Guillén affirmed that the opening document of the trial is a “presentation”, since it qualifies the former president as “de facto” and “unconstitutional”.
After the opening of the presentation hearing, which was held virtually, Guillén complained about problems in the audio and requested that this trial be done in person, in which 76 witnesses are summoned to testify.
The Prosecutor’s Office announced that it will present the testimonies in writing, which the defense rejects, considering that it prevents them and the judges from asking them questions.
While the hearing progressed, dozens of supporters of the former president demonstrated outside the court, led by her daughter Carolina Ribera. They left when a group of critics arrived demanding Áñez’s conviction, an AFP journalist confirmed.
After two hours, the presiding judge closed the session, saying that a date for the next hearing would be set soon. According to Bolivian law, the process can take up to three years.
In addition, the court will modify the opening trial document that the defense criticized, written by a substitute judge.
On Tuesday, a group of 21 former presidents of Ibero-American countries asked the UN to visit Áñez and report on possible “abuses of power” against her.
two processes
The other case against the former president, for sedition, terrorism and conspiracy, is in the investigation stage, so there are still no formal charges.
According to Guillén, “two processes are being followed for the same act”, something that violates a general principle of law.
In addition, he stressed that “it cannot be an ordinary court that decides what is constitutional.”
He emphasized that it is not appropriate to judge a former president by ordinary means and that instead a trial of responsibilities should be held in Congress.
The plaintiffs – the leftist government, the prosecution and Congress – argue that Áñez’s actions prior to her government are being judged, for which an ordinary trial corresponds.
“This is a political trial that the current government of President Luis Arce is carrying out,” said political scientist Carlos Cordero, from the state-run Universidad Mayor de San Andrés.
“It is a way to establish a political sanction for those who dared to be adversaries at a time of crisis of the Movement for Socialism (MAS)”, Morales and Arce’s party estimated.
The former president was also accused of “genocide”, which carries prison sentences of between 10 and 20 years, following the complaint of relatives of victims of the November 2019 repression.
A group of experts hired by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in agreement with Bolivia recorded 22 deaths in these incidents, which it described as “massacres.”
But unlike the other accusations, this will be dealt with by Congress, which will decide whether to carry out a trial of responsibilities against the former president.
The report also questions the independence of the Bolivian judicial system.
From the presidential chair to jail
In October 2019, Morales ran for a fourth term despite losing a referendum to qualify him for a new re-election. In the midst of a strong social upheaval and accusations of fraud, he finally lost the support of military and police commanders and left the country.
Those who were to succeed him resigned one after another: the vice president, the head of the upper house and the president of the chamber of deputies.
In the midst of a power vacuum, Áñez, a lawyer and former television presenter, finally took over the next in line of succession in the Senate.
The parliament, which was controlled by Morales’ MAS, recognized the legality of his management, whose main task was to organize new elections. These were held in October 2020 after two postponements due to the pandemic, and the winner was Arce, Morales’ dolphin.
Áñez left power in November 2020 and in March 2021 she was arrested.
The former president was a finalist for the Sakharov Prize for the defense of human rights and freedom of thought, which is awarded by the European Parliament, but finally this was awarded to the imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalni.
Source: Gestion
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