Bolivia: government announces first Court hearing against ex-president Áñez to begin “next week”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bolivia’s Government Minister Eduardo del Castillo announced Wednesday that the first hearing against Jeanine Áñez for her self-proclamation as president, within the framework of the case known as ‘Coup d’Etat II’, will be held “next week.”

“Based on the investigations conducted, and also due to the Bolivian people’s demand for justice, (…) we hereby inform the public that Mrs. Jeanine Añez,” as well as former high-ranking military and police officers, “will begin their hearings within the ‘Coup II Case’ case (…) for having violated the Constitution” in November 2019, Del Castillo posted on his Facebook profile.

“In simple terms, what the former senator did was to self-proclaim herself in the presence of media and diplomatic representatives, disregarding the formalities established in the Constitution and the law,” Del Castillo recalled, explaining that the evidence presented by Añez has been rejected as “it does not pertain to the current proceeding.”

“It is important to mention that Mrs. Añez has offered as evidence (…) documentation that pertains to other judicial proceedings, such as the case of electoral fraud (case closed today with authorities dismissed) or the case for terrorism, sedition and conspiracy (known as Coup I),” he added.

In addition to Áñez, there are 10 other people, among them former commanders and members of the Bolivian Armed Forces and Police, accused of breach of duty and of violating the Constitution. This is part of the ‘Coup d’Etat I’ case, which investigates the involvement of these and other suspects in crimes of sedition, conspiracy and terrorism, during the November 2019 political crisis that led to the departure of ex-president Evo Morales from the country.

Áñez has been in pre-trial detention since March 15, 2021, as the investigation against her progresses. Since she entered the Miraflores prison in La Paz, both she and her family have denounced her precarious health condition, even alerting to an alleged suicide attempt.

In October 2021, Áñez’s defense suffered a new setback when the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) rejected a request for precautionary measures after finding that the Bolivian State has at all times safeguarded the detainee’s health.