Piñera challenged detention of Jeanine Áñez in Bolivia: “Justice can’t be subordinated to the government of the day”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “There is the Legislative Power that makes the laws, the Executive Power that colegislates and also applies the laws and there is the judicial power that has to resolve legitimate disputes or differences within the framework of the law”, said the President in an interview with CNN en Español.

“For this reason, when there is a government with an ex-president who could have been imprisoned, which is President Evo Morales, and now there is another government where the President is imprisoned, which is President Áñez, it seems to me that it is a sign that the independence and autonomy of powers is not working as it should,” he added.

Piñera’s statement generated reactions from the Bolivian Foreign Ministry, calling for respect for “the self-determination of peoples and the principle of non-interference in internal affairs”.

Through a communiqué, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that country expressed “its surprise and bewilderment at the statements made by the President of the sister Republic of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, regarding the balance of power in Bolivia”.

“The Plurinational State of Bolivia complies with all the rights and guarantees provided for in the Political Constitution of the State and international treaties on Human Rights,” says.

Also Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro criticized Bolivia’s actions a couple of days ago, saying “coup charge against Bolivia’s ex-president are completely unfounded’ . In his opening speech at a virtual event, Bolsonaro also said he hoped Bolivia “will fully uphold the rule of law and democratic coexistence.”

The critical remarks of the Chilean and Brazilian presidents must also be seen against a political backdrop. Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Colombia form the right-wing axis in South America, which was recently joined by Uruguay with its new president Luis Lacalle Pou.

The assumption of power by the likewise right-wing Jeanine Áñez gave rise to hopes that the notoriously left-wing Bolivia might end up in the right-wing camp of South America, which would have changed the balance of power on the continent.

With information from ‘El Mostrador’