Bolivia protests the conviction of former interim president Anez – 06/14/2022

La Paz, June 14, 2022 (AFP) – Dozens of protesters in Bolivia took to the streets on Tuesday (14) to demand the release of former interim president Jeanine Anez, who was sentenced to ten years in prison for irregularly taking power after the resignation of Evo Morales.

“This is a political trial; it’s a revenge trial,” the daughter of the former interim president, Carolina Ribera, said during the protest in La Paz.

The demonstrators, who carried banners with slogans such as “Free Janine” and “Dignified justice for all”, belonged to movements and parties opposing the ruling socialist movement.

“She’s political prey,” said Kevin Vargas, 26, one of the protesters.

A court in La Paz ruled, Friday evening, that Onez, who served as the interim president of the country between 2019 and 2020, is guilty of crimes of violating the duties and decisions contrary to the constitution.

The ñez family has announced that it will appeal the decision in all jurisdictions in Bolivia before going to international justice. The Public Prosecution Office, which is aiming for a 15-year prison sentence, will also appeal.

Justice finds Nez unconstitutionally assumed the presidency in November 2019 after Morales’ resignation (2006-2019) amid protests over alleged electoral fraud denounced by the Organization of American States.

Members of the US Senate from the Democratic and Republican parties condemned, in a joint statement, today, Monday, the “continued politicization” of the Bolivian judiciary, after the decision against the former president.

In addition, a group of 23 former presidents of Ibero-American states last week asked the United Nations and the European Union to “disavow the intent to arbitrarily condemn them.”

Onez, an attorney and former television presenter who was a second vice president of the Senate, became president of organizing new elections after all of her predecessors in the presidential succession resigned: the vice president, the president of the Senate, and the president of the Senate. Parliament.

The Constitutional Court upheld the procedure by which ñez attained the presidency.

The elections were held in October 2020 after being postponed twice due to the pandemic and were won by Luis Ars, Morales’ political heir.

In 2021, a group of experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), in agreement with Bolivia, confirmed scores of deaths and “gross violations of human rights” during the repression that followed Nez’s rise to power in November 2019.

The report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights also questions the independence of the Bolivian judicial system.

Egypt / yao / am