LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) – The conservative interim president who led Bolivia for a year was arrested on Saturday as restored left-wing government officials chase those involved in the ouster of socialist leader Evo Morales in 2019, who they consider a coup. state, and administration that followed.
Jeanine Áñez was arrested early in the morning in her hometown, Trinidad, and taken to the capital, La Paz. She had previously warned that officials were looking for her, calling her “abuse and persecution” in Twitter posts.
The arrest of Áñez and the orders against numerous other former officials further aggravated political tensions in a South American country already torn apart by a cascade of perceived villains suffered by both sides. These include complaints that Morales had become more authoritarian with nearly 13 years in office, that he fielded an illegal candidacy for a fourth re-election, and that he allegedly fixed the result; he repressed his followers, who themselves protested the alleged blow.
Dozens of people died in a series of demonstrations against and then by Morales.
“This is not justice,” said former President Carlos Mesa, who has finished second to Morales in several elections. “They seek to behead an opposition by creating a false narrative of a coup to distract themselves from fraud.”
Other arrest warrants were issued for more than a dozen former officers. Among them are several former cabinet ministers, as well as former military leader William Kaliman and the police chief who had urged Morales to resign in November 2019 after the country was razed by protests against the country’s first indigenous president.
After Morales resigned (or was pushed) and flew abroad, many of his key supporters also resigned. Áñez, a legislator who had been several rungs down the ladder of the presidential succession, was ousted from the interim presidency.
Once there, he abruptly swept Bolivia’s policies to the right and his administration tried to persecute Morales and a number of his supporters on charges of terrorism and sedition, alleging electoral rigging and oppression of protests.
But the Morales movement toward socialism remained popular. He won last year’s election with 55% of the vote for Morales-elected president Luis Arce, who took over the presidency in November. Áñez had left his studies after rushing to the polls.
Two ministers from Áñez’s government were also arrested on Friday, including former Justice Minister Alvaro Coimbra, who had helped lead the prosecution of Morales’ aides. A former Defense Minister and others have also been charged.
New Justice Minister Iván Lima said 53-year-old Áñez faces charges related to her actions as an opposition senator and not as a former president.
The Minister of the Interior, Eduardo del Castillo, denied that it was an act of persecution, and said that the case arose from a criminal complaint of conspiracy and sedition filed against her in November, the month in which she leave office.
The director of Human Rights Watch in America, José Miguel Vivanco, said from Washington that the arrest warrants against Áñnez and his ministers “do not contain any evidence that he has committed the crime of terrorism.”