Former interim president Jeanine Áñez, who has been in prison for almost a year in connection with an alleged coup d’état in Bolivia, remains in prison for at least three more months.
La Paz – A court in La Paz on Monday granted a request to extend the pre-trial detention. Judge Armando Zeballos spoke in an online hearing of a “complex case” whose investigations continued.
Former Senate Vice President Áñez temporarily assumed the highest office in November 2019 after long-time President Evo Morales resigned and went into exile in the face of mass protests and pressure from the army. After the election victory of Morales’ party colleague Luis Arce in the presidential election in October 2020, she resigned from office.
A month later, Morales returned to Bolivia and resumed leadership of the governing party MAS, which he had founded. Áñez was then arrested last March; The government, the public prosecutor’s office and the MOS-dominated parliament accuse her of breaking the constitution by assuming the presidency. Since February 10, she has had to answer for “terrorism” and “riots” in court.
The conservative politician rejects all accusations as being politically motivated. She has been on a hunger strike since February 9. Her defense appealed the extension of the sentence.
The trial against the 54-year-old could drag on for at least three more years. After the arrest, the Organization of American States (OAS) doubted that the Bolivian judiciary could “provide the minimum guarantees for a fair trial”.
Morales was the first indigenous president in Latin America to rule Bolivia for more than 13 years. The mass protests against him broke out after his controversial candidacy for a fourth term and his re-election, which was overshadowed by allegations of manipulation.
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