Bolivian court denies Áñez impeachment trial as ex-president

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “Justice subjected to power. The 2nd Criminal Chamber of the Court of La Paz denied the ex-President’s right to a trial of accountability [impeachment] and maintains her detention with no crime. Outrageous,” reads a message posted on the former interim president’s social media accounts managed by her relatives.

“I denounce before Bolivia and the international community that I am a victim of procedural and political violence,” the post adds.

Áñez has been in prison for half a year as part of a lawsuit brought against her at the behest of the government, which accuses her of crimes such as conspiracy, terrorism and sedition for the alleged 2019 “coup d’état.”

The government of Luis Arce and his party, the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), consider that Evo Morales’ ousting from the presidency in 2019 was the result of a coup d’état, while his opponents maintain that the crisis was the consequence of electoral fraud in his favor in that year’s failed general elections.

Áñez’s defense filed an appeal arguing that the ordinary courts do not have jurisdiction to prosecute former presidentsç rather, they should be subject to a trial of accountability in view of the charges brought against her by the ruling party for the 2019 crisis, explained her daughter Carolina Ribera.

The court that processed the appeal declared “the lack of jurisdiction argument” raised by the ex-president’s defense “unfounded,” Ribera said, who also denounced that “there is no unbiased justice” in the country.

“The judiciary is manipulated by the MAS, by the government party and they are using my mother as a trophy to send a message of fear to all people who think differently and to all opposition leaders. That is why they have her imprisoned and are using the courts as political repression,” she said.

The government has brought a dozen lawsuits against Áñez, some of them in the ordinary courts and others in trials of accountability, although those closest to Evo Morales consider that the latter, which must be passed by Parliament, do not apply because that would imply acknowledging the legality of the transitional presidency.

According to Ribera, Áñez has twice requested the payment of the annuity to which she is entitled to as ex-president, but the Ministry of the Presidency denied it on both occasions, arguing that she was not legally accredited as a former president.

“However, she has done it, but what they want is to pursue their fabrication of the coup d’état,” Ribera lamented.