Bolivian prosecutors request six months of pre-trial detention for Jeanine Anez
La Paz, July 17 (RHC)-- Bolivian media reports that the Fourth Sentencing Court of that country ratified the sentence of ten years in prison imposed in 2022 to the former de facto president Jeanine Áñez in the so-called Golpe II case.
Áñez was found guilty of breach of duties and resolutions contrary to the Constitution and the law. She was accused by the Prosecutor's Office of having assumed in 2019 the presidency of the Senate and then of Bolivia without fulfilling constitutional requirements, after the coup d'état perpetrated against former President Evo Morales by the local right wing, external allies and the Organization of American States (OAS).
The ratification of the sentence was confirmed by her defense attorney, Eusebio Vera, who informed that he will present a cassation appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), the last instance of appeal, declaring it as an executed sentence.
The denunciation of this case (Coup II) was filed by the president of the Senate, Andrónico Rodríguez, in April 2021, when Áñez was already being prosecuted for the crimes of sedition, conspiracy and terrorism after the denunciation of former congresswoman Lidia Patty (Coup I case).
According to press reports, other persons tried in the Golpe II case also received the ratification of the sentence. A sentence of ten years in prison was given to the former commander general of the Police, Yuri Calderón, and the former commander of the Armed Forces (FF.AA.), Williams Kaliman. Both are fugitives from justice.
Also sentenced were the former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Flavio Gustavo Arce (two years in prison); the former commander of the Army, Pastor Mendieta (three years); as well as the former inspector general of the High Command, Jorge Fernández, and General Sergio Orellana, former chief of Department III of Operations (both sentenced to four years).
Áñez was arrested in March 2021 and is being held in pre-trial detention in the Miraflores prison in La Paz. In total, she has six open proceedings in the ordinary justice system.
Popular sectors that resisted the coup d'état consider her responsible for the massacres of Sacaba (Cochabamba) and Senkata (La Paz), when the military repressed supporters of Evo Morales and defenders of the return of institutionalism with the use of live ammunition.
On November 15, 2021, in Sacaba, 11 civilians lost their lives and around 120 were injured, while another 11 died and 78 were injured in Senkata, on November 19 of the same year.
