Bolivia’s former interim president Jeanine Áñez, who is being held in a La Paz jail, will face trial starting Monday for the deaths of 10 protesters during the 2019 political crisis that led to the resignation of then-President Evo Morales.
“The Attorney General’s Office and the Public Prosecutor’s Office have already provided sufficient evidence to obtain the maximum sentence of 30 years for Ms. Áñez and others involved in the death of protesters,” said Attorney General César Siles.
Another 17 people, including former ministers of Áñez and former military chiefs, will go on trial for the so-called “Senkata massacre.”
“Today the next show begins… since no one believes them anymore in the face of the economic crisis, (the government) needs a scapegoat, another smokescreen, without caring about the Constitution,” Áñez commented on her X account, formerly Twitter. The process will take place virtually.
Detained in a women’s prison in La Paz since March 2021, Áñez was already sentenced to 10 years for having improperly assumed the presidency of the country as an opposition senator after Morales’ resignation.
Following the conviction, the former president filed a lawsuit against the Bolivian State before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) because she was denied a trial of accountability.
The trial for the deaths of protesters will also be a process in the ordinary courts. Authorities claim that the 57-year-old politician was not a constitutional president. Áñez maintains that she assumed office legally.
After 14 years in power, Morales resigned in November 2019 following a social uprising that claimed the lives of 37 people following elections denounced as fraudulent by the Organization of American States (OAS) in which he was seeking a fourth consecutive term.
Áñez’s trial could drag on for months and will be held in a court in the neighbouring city of El Alto, where the events took place. Áñez also faces another trial for the deaths of nine pro-Morales protesters in the so-called “Sacaba massacre” in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba during the 2019 protests.
In both incidents, protesters died from gunshot wounds. Supporters and opponents of Morales were killed during the violent protests that lasted almost a month.
A commission of IACHR experts concluded in August 2021 that both the Morales and Áñez governments were responsible for “serious human rights violations” during the political crisis.
Morales, however, has been cleared of charges. The former president, leader of the divided ruling party Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), has already started the race for the 2025 presidential elections in open dispute with his political heir, the current president Luis Arce.
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