Bolivia ex-president Jeanine Anez behind bars over alleged coup

Bolivia’s former interim President Jeanine Anez has been arrested over the 2019 political crisis that saw her replace predecessor Evo Morales, reigniting tensions in the South American nation. The conservative politician had faced an arrest warrant on charges of “terrorism”, sedition and conspiracy over an alleged coup after she replaced Morales in November 2019 when he fled the country during widespread protests against his re-election.

“I inform the Bolivian people that Mrs Jeanine Anez has already been apprehended and is currently in the hands of the police,” the minister of government, Carlos Eduardo del Castillo, wrote on Twitter and Facebook on Saturday. Castillo congratulated the police for their “great work” in the “historic task of giving justice” to the Bolivian people.

Anez, who was arrested in the early morning hours in her hometown of Trinidad and flown to the capital, La Paz, had tweeted an arrest order she said was issued by the public prosecutor’s office, with the response: “The political persecution has begun.” She added that she should benefit from immunity as former president.

Upon her arrival in La Paz, Anez told local television that the accusations against her was an “absolute outrage. There is not a grain of truth in the accusations. It is simple political intimidation. There was no coup. I took part in a constitutional succession.”

Bolivian television broadcast images of a heavy police presence around her home in the northern city of Trinidad, as well as of former energy minister Rodrigo Guzman and his justice counterpart Alvaro Coimbra, both listed on the warrant, being arrested. A former defence minister and others also have been accused.

From a police barracks in La Paz, Anez sent letters to the European Union and the Organization of American States asking them to send observer missions to follow the case. The government insisted that due process will be followed, and Justice Minister Ivan Lima told state TV the investigation against Anez related to the time she was an opposition senator, not the interim president. “For that reason constitutional privileges do not apply,” he said.