Former Bolivian de facto ruler Janine Áñez is indicted for genocide

Havana, April 19 (RHC) – The former de facto president of Bolivia Janine Áñez (2019-2020) today faces a possible 30-year sentence, accused of terrorism, murder and attempted murder in the criminal file called the Sacaba Massacre.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, in November 2019 a power structure aimed at exercising violent repression was consolidated, knowing that it would cause the death of people and injuries to others, in the face of protests demanding respect for the right to vote in Sacaba.

Prosecutors add that Áñez, in complicity with former Government ministers Arturo Murillo, and Defense Minister Fernando López, issued Supreme Decree 4078 (known as death), which exonerated police and military from criminal liability in the repression against those who claimed the restoration of the constitutional order.  Together with both incumbents, the de facto ex-governor coordinated joint operations to attack the mobilized, according to the Public Ministry.

The ex-governor is serving a 10-year first instance in the Miraflores prison for the Coup d’état II case, a trial that analyzed the unconstitutional path she used to place herself at the head of the Senate and later of the State. In the Coup d'état I file, Áñez is accused of the massacres of Senkata, in El Alto; and of Sacaba, in Cochabamba, with nearly 40 deaths, hundreds of injuries and thousands of imprisoned and tortured. (Source: Prensa Latina)