LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) – The conservative interim president who led Bolivia for a year was arrested on Saturday when officials from the restored left-wing government pursued those involved in the 2019 ousting of socialist leader Evo Morales, whom they consider a coup, and the administration that followed.
Jeanine Áñez was detained early in the morning in her hometown of Trinidad and flown to the capital, La Paz. She had previously warned officials were looking for her, calling it “abuse and prosecution” in Twitter messages.
The arrest of Áñez and warrants against many other former officials further exacerbated political tensions in a South American country already torn apart by a cascade of alleged abuses suffered by both sides. Those included complaints that Morales had become more authoritarian with nearly 13 years in office, that he had illegally fled a fourth reelection and then allegedly falsified the outcome, that right-wing forces led violent protests that led the security forces to force him to resign, and then cracked his followers, who themselves protested the alleged coup d’état.
Dozens of people died in a series of demonstrations against and then Morales.
“This is not justice,” said former President Carlos Mesa, who finished second to Morales in several elections. “They are trying to decapitate an opposition by making a false story of a coup d’état to distract from fraud.”
Other arrest warrants were issued against more than a dozen other former officials. These include several ex-cabinet ministers, as well as former military leader William Kaliman and the police chief who urged Morales to resign in November 2019 after the country was overrun with protests against the country’s first indigenous president.
After Morales stepped down – or was pushed – and flew abroad, many of his key supporters also resigned. Áñez, a lawmaker who had been a few steps down the presidential succession ladder, was vaulted into the interim presidency.
Once there, she turned Bolivian policy abruptly to the right, and her government tried to prosecute Morales and a string of his supporters on allegations of terrorism and incitement, with alleged electoral fraud and suppression of protests.
But the Morales movement towards socialism remained popular. It won last year’s election with 55% of the vote under Morales-elected candidate Luis Arce, who took over the presidency in November. Áñez had dropped out after diving into the polls.
Two ministers in Áñez’s government were also arrested Friday, including former Justice Minister Alvaro Coimbra, who had helped prosecute Morales’ aides. A former Defense Secretary and others have also been charged.
New Justice Minister Iván Lima said Áñez, 53, is being accused of her actions as an opposition senator, not a former president.
Home Secretary Eduardo del Castillo denied it was an act of prosecution and said the case stemmed from a conspiracy and sedition charge filed against her in November, the month she left office.
US Director of Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivanco, said from Washington that the arrest warrants against Áñnez and her ministers “contain no evidence that they have committed the crime of terrorism.”