Tension in Bolivia: they order the arrest of Áñez and five former ministers

THE PEACE.- The political climate has warmed again today in Bolivia after the prosecution issued an arrest warrant against former President Jeanine Áñez and several of its ministers of sedition and terrorism, according to a copy of the decree issued by the former president herself.

The prosecution has yet to officially rule on the measure, but local television has broadcast footage of the arrests of several former ministers. The ex-president posted the prosecutor’s resolution on Twitter with the text “The political persecution has started.”

Lidia Patty, a former lawmaker of the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party, denounced last December that Áñez, along with several of his former ministers, ex-servicemen, former police officers and civilians, had promoted the overthrow of leftist Evo Morales in November 2019, after 14 years in power.

The former MAS deputy lodged a complaint for the alleged crimes of sedition, terrorism and conspiracy.

“The MAS has decided to return to the styles of dictatorship. Too bad because Bolivia does not need dictators, it needs freedom and solutions, ”Áñez wrote on Twitter.

The order of prosecutors reaches former ministers Arturo Murillo (Interior), Luis Fernando López (Defense), Yerko Núñez (Presidency), Álvaro Coímbra (Justice) and Rodrigo Guzmán (Energy).

Patty’s trial is also against Luis Fernando Camacho, one of the leaders of the protests that ended with Morales’ resignation and elected governor of the Santa Cruz region in local elections last Sunday, although the prosecutor did not ordered his arrest.

The former ministers of justice and energy were the first to be arrested this Friday in the Amazonian city of Trinidad, capital of the department of Beni.

“We said we would always make ourselves available to the law,” Coimbra said when he was arrested and placed in the police vehicle, in statements on Bolivian television.

He had already protested against Guzmán’s situation: “Rodrigo Guzmán, former Minister of Energy, was illegally and abusively arrested for the armed affair of a coup”.

Yesterday, it was not known where Áñez was located, although television footage showed a powerful police device outside his residence in the town of Trinidad, 600 kilometers northeast of La Paz.

The former interior and defense ministers left Bolivia last November and, according to Interpol-Bolivia, are in the United States.

The prosecution has also issued arrest warrants against former commanders of the armed forces William Kalimán and his successor, Sergio Orellana, and of the police Yuri Calderón.

Áñez assumed the presidency of Bolivia on November 12, 2019, two days after Morales resigned amid social protests across the country that left some 30 people dead, and stepped down in November 2020 following victory in the Urns of Luis Arce, the native chief’s dolphin. .

Along with Morales, Vice-President Álvaro García Linera and the official presidents of the Chambers of Deputies and Senators have left their positions.

Áñez was second vice president of the Senate and facing a power vacuum, she assumed the country’s first post. She was the second woman to rule Bolivia, after Lidia Gueiler (1978-1980), overthrown by a military coup.

Opponents had promoted protests across the country after the October elections of the same year, which were denounced as fraudulent in favor of the ruling Morales party, which was seeking a fourth term.

Morales left asylum in Mexico and a month later moved to Argentina, where he was a refugee until Arce became president.

A group of investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) are in Bolivia to investigate what happened at the end of 2019.

Reactions

Two former presidents of Bolivia, centrist Carlos Mesa (2003-2005) and right-winger Jorge Quiroga (2001-2002), have separately rejected the arrest warrants and the arrests. Both were key players in the transition from Morales government to Áñez in 2019.

“We are in a process of political persecution worse than in dictatorships. He is being executed against those who defended democracy and freedom in 2019, ”Mesa said on Twitter.

Quiroga, similarly, pointed out that “the hunt for revenge is unleashed” and he told President Arce that “you are the apprentice of a tyrant”.

AFP and Reuters agencies

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