Bolivian Justice begins trial against former President Jeanine Áñez for coup d’état

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – As part of the ongoing judicial proceedings against Bolivia’s former de facto president, the justice system will issue this Wednesday the order to open the trial against Jeanine Áñez and nine other defendants for the 2019 coup d’état.

“On Wednesday, the order to open the trial would be issued and, according to criminal procedure, in 45 days we should be starting the public and contradictory oral trial,” said in an interview, the Vice Minister of Justice, Jaime Siles.

He explained that the judicial resolution would be issued because Tuesday is the deadline for the defendants to present their evidence formally.

The state authority recalled that the so-called “coup d’état II” case was initiated against Áñez for previous actions she made as a senator before the constitutional rupture of 2019, so the crimes typified were a breach of duties and resolutions contrary to the Political Constitution of the State and the laws.

Last November, the Prosecutor’s Office in La Paz filed a formal accusation against Áñez, in the ordinary procedure, within the “coup d’état II” case.

Among those accused along with Áñez are former military chiefs Williams Carlos Kaliman Romero, Vladimir Yuri Calderón Mariscal, Flavio Gustavo Arce San Martín, Carlos Orellana Centellas, Jorge Elmer Fernández Toranzo, Jorge Gonzalo Terceros Lara, Jorge Pastor Mendieta Ferrufino, and Palmiro Gonzalo Jarjury Rada.

“We have faith that the judicial body is going to speed up the times, and we hope that by March, maximum April of this year, we will have the first sentence against Mrs. Áñez for the “coup d’état II” case,” said Siles.

The Bolivian Justice rejected a few days ago an appeal filed by Áñez for the cessation of the preventive detention she is serving for the case of the alleged “coup d’état I”, in which she is accused of sedition, terrorism, and conspiracy in the framework of the 2019 post-electoral crisis in the South American nation.