LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) – The conservative interim president who led Bolivia for a year was arrested on Saturday as restored left-wing government officials are following those involved in the 2019 dismissal of Socialist leader Evo Morales, whom he considers a coup and administration that followed.
Jeanine Áñez was detained early in the morning in her hometown of Trinidad and flown to the capital, La Paz. She warned earlier that officials were looking for her, calling her “abuse and persecution” in Twitter posts.
Áñez’s arrest and warrants against many other former officials have further exacerbated political tensions in a South American country already torn apart by a cascade of perceived mistakes made by both sides. These include complaints that Morales became more authoritarian with nearly 13 years in office, that he ran illegally for a fourth re-election, and then rigged the result, that right-wing forces led violent protests that led security forces to he pushed him to resign and then repressed his followers, who themselves protested the alleged coup.
Dozens of people were killed in a series of demonstrations against and then for Morales.
“This is not fair,” said former President Carlos Mesa, who finished second to Morales in several elections. “They are trying to decapitate an opposition by creating a false narrative about a coup to distract from fraud.”
Other arrest warrants have been issued for more than a dozen other former officials. Among them are several former 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 swept away by protests against the country’s first indigenous president.
After Morales resigned – or was pushed – and flew abroad, many of his main supporters resigned. Áñez, a legislator who had been several steps on the scale of the presidential succession, was thrown into the interim presidency.
Once there, she suddenly disrupted Bolivia’s right-wing policies, and her administration tried to prosecute Morales and a number of his supporters on charges of terrorism and sedition, accusing them of rigging elections and suppressing protests.
But the Morales Movement for Socialism remained popular. He won last year’s election with 55% of the vote under Morales’ candidate, Luis Arce, who took over the presidency in November. Áñez gave up after plunging into the polls.
Two ministers from Áñez’s government were arrested on Friday, including former Justice Minister Alvaro Coimbra, who helped lead the prosecution of Morales’ aides. A former defense minister and others have also been charged.
The new Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, said that Áñez, 53, faces charges related to his actions as an opposition senator, not as a former president.
Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo denied that it was an act of persecution, saying that the case arose from a criminal complaint of conspiracy and sedition filed against her in November, the month she left office.
US Human Rights Watch director José Miguel Vivanco said in Washington that the arrest warrants against Áñnez and her ministers “contained no evidence that he had committed the crime of terrorism.”