Justice extends for fifth time preventive detention of Bolivia’s former interim president Jeanine Áñez

The Bolivian Justice decided this Wednesday for the fifth time to extend for three months the preventive detention of the former interim president of Bolivia (2019-2020), Jeanine Áñez, who has served a year and eight months of preventive detention in the case called “coup d’état I”.

The decision was taken by Judge Armando Zeballos after almost three hours of hearing, an opportunity in which he argued that the risks of flight and obstruction of the investigation persisted.

Read also: check out our coverage on the Bolivian justice and the case of Jeanine Áñez

On Aug. 16, Áñez’s preventive detention was extended for the fourth time for the “coup d’état I” case three more months.

A similar decision was assumed for former ministers Rodrigo Guzmán and Álvaro Coimbra for the same case, linked to the resignation of former president Evo Morales in 2019.

“For the 5th time, he extends my unjust detention for non-existent crimes. He gives 90 days more to 20 months deprived of liberty, being innocent of the hoax mounted against me! The fiscal and judicial persecution against a former president of Bolivia and hundreds of political prisoners is criminal,” Áñez wrote on her Twitter account.

In 2020, the former deputy of the ruling party, Lidia Patty, filed a complaint for sedition, terrorism, and conspiracy against those she considers the promoters of that crisis.

In that case, Áñez is the main defendant, along with her former ministers, the current governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, and her father.

On that occasion, former military and police chiefs were also included.

In August of this year, the Prosecutor’s Office rejected Patty’s complaint for sedition and conspiracy after the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal declared it unconstitutional.

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

The first trial is the so-called “coup d’état I” for allegedly committing sedition, terrorism, and conspiracy crimes. 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 last June 10 resulted in a 10-year prison sentence for the former interim president for the crimes of breach of duties and resolutions contrary to the Constitution and the laws.

She has been held in a women’s prison Miraflores in the Bolivian city of La Paz (west) since March 2021, where the Justice decided that she will serve these 10 years of imprisonment.

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