La Paz, December 7 (RHC)-- In the run-up to the 2020 elections in Bolivia, in which Luis Arce was elected president, coup leader Jeanine Áñez requested arms from the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Deputy Minister of Citizen Security, Roberto Ríos, showed the letters through which the de facto administration of Jeanine Áñez, weeks before the 2020 elections, asked the U.S. and UK embassies for armament presumably to "repress the Bolivian people."

"I ask you to attend to the defense of the integrity of the Bolivian people and its territory," reads the first page of the letter that Áñez sent in May 2020 to the diplomatic representative of Washington, Bruce Williamson, before sending in September another similar official note to the British embassy.

In the note, Áñez requested "pistols, cartridges, gas grenades, full uniforms, gas masks, night visors, thermal, binoculars, helmets, protective suits and equipment that she considered important for the Bolivian Police."

In June 2021, The Intercept magazine revealed that the outgoing de facto government of Áñez planned to deploy hundreds of U.S. mercenaries to reverse the results of the October 2020 elections in the South American country, to prevent Luis Arce from assuming the presidency.

The October 2020 elections were held in Bolivia, after those of 2019, from which Evo Morales was re-elected, ended in episodes of violence, given the attempts by sectors of the coup opposition to entrench the idea that there was alleged fraud in the elections.  Evo Morales subsequently resigned to avoid further violence in the country.

During the post-coup marches in Bolivia, police under the orders of Áñéz cracked down heavily with weapons and chemical agents on demonstrators opposing the status quo. The police and military repression left some 36 people dead and more than 800 injured.