Bolivia denounces Brazil’s “inappropriate interference” by offering Jeanine Áñez asylum

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Bolivian Foreign Minister, Rogelio Mayta, has criticized the “inappropriate interference” of Brazil for the proposal of its president, Jair Bolsonaro, to give political asylum to former Bolivian president Jeanine Áñez, sentenced to ten years in prison for her role in the institutional crisis of the Andean nation in November 2019.

Bolsonaro announced on Monday, June 27, his intention to offer political asylum to Áñez, as long as the Bolivian government agrees, according to statements picked up by Globo Vision. “We will do everything possible for her to come to Brazil (…) She is unjustly imprisoned,” he added.

“We regret the unfortunate statements of the president of Brazil, which are absolutely impertinent, make an inappropriate interference in internal affairs, do not respect the forms of relations between States, and do not coincide with the relations of good neighborliness and mutual respect between Brazil and Bolivia,” Mayta said this Tuesday.

In addition, the head of the diplomatic portfolio has remarked that they will not accept this attempt to interfere in the sovereign decisions of the Bolivian Justice since the former president Áñez is immersed in a trial for “several violations of Human Rights, and there are sufficient indications that she has also committed crimes against humanity,” according to the local newspaper ‘La Razón’.

In this line, Áñez has published on her social networks -managed by her relatives- a message thanking the Brazilian president for “his repudiation” of the “abuses” committed against the former president.

“She is innocent and did not and will not leave the country. She demands a trial of responsibilities,” she said.

Bolsonaro also criticized former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for not condemning the Bolivian Justice’s ruling against Áñez.

With information from Europa Press

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