Bolivian prosecutors have requested a 10-year prison sentence against the former de facto president. | Photo: EFE

La Paz, February 10 (RHC)-- The first oral trial against the former de facto president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, begins this Thursday in the capital of the South American country.  This is the trial baptized as "Coup d'Etat II" -- in which Jeanine Áñez is accused of breach of duties and resolutions contrary to the Constitution for having assumed the presidency on November 12, 2019 without meeting the necessary institutional requirements.

The Bolivian Prosecutor's Office has requested the maximum sentence of 10 years against the former de facto president.  According to the Prosecutor's Office, the former senator committed several offenses against the Constitution and the regulations of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly before self-proclaiming herself as de facto president on November 12, 2019.

After the coup d'état against Evo Morales, the interim presidency of the country should have been given to a legislator of the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), since they had a majority of seats, and not on the opposition bloc of which Áñez was a member.

During the trial, the participation of politicians, police, military and civilians who collaborated in the irregular succession of Jeanine Áñez will also be analyzed.  Along with the former de facto president, former Chief of Staff Flavio Gustavo Arce will also be tried; and former commanders Pastor Mendieta (Army), Gonzalo Terceros (Air Force) and Palmiro Jarjury (Armed Forces).

There are also two fugitives: former police commander Yuri Calderón and former commander of the Armed Forces, Williams Kaliman.

In addition to her participation in the overthrow of Evo Morales and her anomalous inauguration as president, Jeanine Áñez will also be investigated in other cases for crimes against humanity related to the massacres of Sacaba and Senkata that left at least 38 people murdered and hundreds more wounded.

On the eve of the trial, Áñez began a hunger strike as part of his strategy to delay the start of the oral trial.  The head of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) bench in the Chamber of Deputies, Gualberto Arispe, immediately described the hunger strike as a political action of victimization, whose objective is to avoid the judicial process.