Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office extends criminal proceedings against Jeanine Áñez for genocide and murder in Sacaba massacre

The Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office decided Tuesday to expand the criminal proceedings against former interim President Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020) for the crimes of genocide, murder, and severe injury committed in the so-called “Sacaba massacre” case.

The massacre occurred in the city of Cochabamba in November 2019 after the resignation of former President Evo Morales (2006-2019).

“Your Honor, in anticipation of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and in merit of the memorial of request for extension and other elements of conviction in the investigation notebook, there is the need to extend the investigation against the following person: Jeanine Áñez Chávez”, states the memorial of the commission of prosecutors of the Sacaba case.

To this panorama is added the decision of the Supreme Court of Justice to send the background of the Senkata case to a judge in El Alto, which means that the former interim president is in the hands of Judge Marco Antonio Amaru for an ordinary trial.

In both the Sacaba and Senkata cases, in addition to Áñez, the defendants are former heads of the Bolivian Armed Forces and the Bolivian Police, as well as the then ministers of Government, Arturo Murillo and Defense, Fernando López.

In the days following Evo Morales’ resignation from the presidency, two protests were repressed by the interim government of Áñez.

The first in Sacaba, Cochabamba; the second in El Alto, La Paz. In both cases, armed and security forces members fired on demonstrators, leaving 27 dead and hundreds of people shot and wounded.

The former president’s defense affirmed that these decisions aggravated the conflict of competencies to judge Áñez.

Her lawyers and opposition legislators remind that an “inhibitory” appeal and an appeal are still pending.

To date, three proceedings have been filed against Áñez for ordinary trials, one of which has already been sentenced to 10 years in the “coup d’état II” case.

The first trial is the so-called “coup d’état I” for allegedly committing crimes of sedition, terrorism, and conspiracy.

For this case, she is in preventive detention with five extensions, and the process continues.

A second one, for the “coup d’état II” case, which on June 10 of last year resulted in a ten-year prison sentence for the former interim president for the crimes of breach of duties and resolutions contrary to the Constitution the laws.

She has been held in the Miraflores women’s prison in the Bolivian city of La Paz (west) since March 2021, when the justice system decided that she should serve these ten years.

The third case refers to the irregular appointment of her relative Karina Fabiola Leiva Áñez de Ruiz as manager of the state-owned EBA in 2020, which is still in process.