Division in Bolivia after the arrest of Jeanine Áñez on sedition and terrorism charges

Bolivia has gone through an extremely turbulent period since the October 2019 elections, the results of which were challenged by the opposition and the Organisation of American States (OAS). Áñez, who was second vice-president of the Senate, assumed the country's presidency on an interim basis after the forced resignation and exile of the then president and leader of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), Evo Morales. Áñez temporarily assumed the presidency until last October's elections, in which the MAS candidate, represented by Luis Arce, won.

Although she claimed that her role was purely temporary, Áñez was a candidate for Alianza Juntos, but withdrew when she failed to gather enough support from the conservative wing to win over MAS, which won more than 55 per cent of the vote.

The former interim president of Bolivia between 2019 and 2020 and several of her former ministers were arrested early last night in the Amazonian department of Beni, accused of "sedition and terrorism" during the 2019 crisis that led to Morales' resignation.

The arrest of Bolivia's former interim president Jeanine Áñez in the early hours of Saturday morning has divided the country between those who see this situation as a political persecution and those in favour of the government, on the side of the victims of the 2019 crisis who consider that justice is being done.

The Bolivian authorities deployed a strong operation, led by the general commander of the police, Jhonny Aguilera, and the Minister of Government, Eduardo Del Castillo Del Carpio, which led to the capture of Añez, and she was immediately transferred to La Paz, some 500 kilometres away, in an air force plane.

Añez was taken to the Public Prosecutor's Office for an informative statement in which she invoked her right to silence as she would not be treated as the country's former president and therefore be subjected to a trial of responsibilities. 

At the time of her transfer, the former president described her arrest as an "absolute outrage" and told the media that it was a "political intimidation" and that the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), the party of President Luis Arce, was behind the whole process. Áñez maintained that she will go to international bodies because her "status as ex-president" is not being respected, and emphasised that she followed a "constitutional succession".

Áñez herself revealed on her social networks the arrest warrant against her and several of her ex-collaborators, as well as the name of the virtual governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, in the resolution. "The political persecution has begun," denounced Áñez, along with a link and screenshots of the documents that she says are from the process being carried out by the Attorney General's Office and the arrest warrants.

In the arrest warrant issued by Áñez on 12 March, it is detailed that within the case followed by the Public Prosecutor's Office following the complaint filed by former MAS legislator Lidia Patty for the "alleged commission of the crimes of terrorism and others", the arrest of Álvaro Rodrigo Guzmán Collao, former interim Minister of Energy, and Álvaro Eduardo Coímbra Cornejo, former interim head of Justice, has been ordered.

Last Thursday, the Public Prosecutor's Office also issued arrest warrants for former Bolivian Armed Forces commander Williams Kaliman and other former military chiefs, as well as former police commander Yuri Calderón, as confirmed to Efe by lawyer Jorge Víctor Nina. "There is an arrest warrant" and the police "are in charge of executing it", said the lawyer who represents former Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) legislator Lidia Patty, who filed the "coup d'état" complaint in November last year on charges of terrorism and sedition.

Former Bolivian president Carlos Mesa and leader of his country's largest opposition party, Comunidad Ciudadana (CC), said that the arrests of former interim president Jeanine Áñez and two of her former ministers are intended to "legitimise the fraud" in the sub-national (regional and municipal) elections on 7 March. Mesa said at a press conference in La Paz that "this is not a legal problem, it is a political problem that marks the decision of the Luis Arce-Evo Morales government to take Bolivia to the Venezuelan model".

Frida Conde, president of the Association of Victims of the Southern Zone, told Efe that she expects Áñez "to pay for everything she has done, and now a long process awaits her". Conde confirmed that the group, made up of around 60 people, will hold various activities and vigils at police headquarters and at the Public Prosecutor's Office "to demand justice".

The former interim Bolivian president Jeanine Áñez addressed letters to the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU) delegation in Bolivia in which she requests the presence of an observation mission to "objectively evaluate" her detention.

Áñez delivered these letters to the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, and to the EU ambassador in Bolivia, Michael Doczy, in which she denounces a "systematic violation of human rights in Bolivia through an aberrant political persecution".
The former interim president asks that in the framework of the Inter-American Democratic Charter an "official observation mission be sent to objectively and impartially evaluate the illegal arrest of which we have been victims with my two former ministers".

Áñez appealed that both the OAS and the EU were witnesses to the "fraud in the past elections of 2019", which gave the winner to Evo Morales for a fourth consecutive term, elections that were subsequently annulled in the midst of a political and social crisis in the country.

In the letters she also denounces that she and her former interim ministers of Energy Álvaro Rodrigo Guzmán and Justice Álvaro Coímbra, who are also in the cells of the Special Force to Fight Crime (Felcc), were "illegally transferred to La Paz, with the start of an unjust criminal trial" against them. She also pointed out that the Bolivian authorities have violated the constitutional principle of due process and the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence.

In a message on his Twitter account, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, says he is aware of the events in that country and stresses that "the charges for the events of 2019 must be resolved in the framework of transparent justice and without political pressure, respecting the independence of powers" and called on the current Bolivian authorities that the charges against the former interim president Jeanine Áñez and several of her former ministers arrested for the events of 2019 be resolved with justice and without political pressure. "Dialogue and reconciliation are crucial. The EU will continue to support Bolivia," concludes the tweet from the EU High Representative.

For his part, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, called for respect for "due process" and "transparency" in the arrests of the former Bolivian president and high-ranking officials of the previous Bolivian government. "The Secretary-General recalls the importance of respecting due process to ensure full transparency in all legal processes," Guterres' spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.

Faced with pressure from politicians and citizens, the team of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó called for the "immediate release" of the former president who, during her term in office, recognised the anti-Chavista as head of state in charge of the Caribbean country. "We demand her immediate release and we advocate that the international community contribute to exert pressure to enforce respect for the political guarantees of all actors who make public life in that country," reads a statement, signed by the "legitimate government" of Venezuela.