Añez on Hunger Strike Hours Before Start of Trial
The trial against Bolivia’s former dictator Jeanine Añez, for the coup carried out in November 2019, is set to begin on Thursday. Añez has declared herself on hunger strike in a last-ditch attempt to seek impunity. She’s currently locked up in pretrial custody in the Miraflores prison in La Paz.
Vice Minister of Justice, Jaime Siles stated: “on Wednesday an order to open the trial will be declared and according to criminal procedure, in 45 days the public and contradictory oral trial would begin. We trust that the judicial body is going to accelerate the trial, and we hope that by March or April of this year, we will have the first sentence against Mrs. Áñez, for the coup d’état II case “.
On November 12, 2019, Jeanine Añez declared herself President in front of an empty congress, then proceeded to the presidential office where the military placed the presidential sash on her. This coup took place after the military ordered elected President Evo Morales to resign following weeks of violent protests by far-right groups.
During Añez’s first weeks in power, she carried out two massacres, and a number of extrajudicial killings. Despite the human rights violations of the Añez period, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called for the release of Bolivia’s fallen dictator.
She was arrested in March 2021, five months after Luis Arce, the MAS candidate, won the presidency in an election that represented the return of democracy in Bolivia. Since then, there have been two major court cases against her. One is the Golpe de Estado I, in which she’s charged with the crimes of sedition, terrorism and conspiracy, and which is ongoing but has not yet reached trial, and Golpe de Estado II, which begins this Thursday.
