Bolsonaro confirms that he gave political asylum in Brazil to Jeanine Áñez’s former Minister of Defense

The president of Brazil and candidate for reelection, Jair Bolsonaro, announced Thursday that former Bolivian Defense Minister Fernando López is in Brazil as “politically persecuted”.

“The Bolivian Minister of Defense was also sentenced to 10 years (as Jeanine Áñez), but he came to Brazil; I guaranteed his presence here.”

“As long as I am president, he does not leave Brazil. The same thing happened with the head of the Bolivian National Guard (Yuri Calderón) and many other people who fled from there”, he said.

Following these words, former Bolivian leftist president Evo Morales has pointed out in his official Twitter profile that these actions by the Brazilian president represent “interference in Bolivia’s internal affairs”.

“We repudiate Bolsonaro’s statements that, in addition to representing interference in Bolivia’s internal affairs, demonstrate the execution of a 21st Century Condor Plan by right-wing governments in the 2019 coup. It is inadmissible that a government offers impunity to coup perpetrators”, he explained.

López indicated through his lawyer last April that he will not return to Bolivia until “the political situation does not change” in the Latin American country.

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