Bolivia: Coup President Añez Sentenced as a Usurper

Former Bolivian senator Jeanine Añez will serve a ten-year prison sentence for overthrowing the constitutional government on November 12th, 2019, the court ruled late Friday evening in the case of Golpe de Estado II.

The right-wing strategy had been to drag out the legal proceedings for as long as possible. In the last week of the trial, Añez was turning off her zoom camera, leaving her seat regularly without asking the court permission, and falling asleep because, she said, she was “very tired.” Her family promises to take the “persecution” of the former Senator to the highest international tribunals.

On the day of sentencing, Bolivia’s right-ring gathered signatures of prominent international figures, demanding that the trial be brought to a halt for alleged irregularities. The United Nations accompanied the trial from start to finish, across more than fifty delaying tactics mounted by Añez’s lawyers, and were satisfied that the accused got a fair trial.

Lead lawyer in the committee of lawyers pursuing the case against Jeanine Añez, Aldo Michel, told Bolivia TV: “In the branch of the judicial system dedicated to cases involving the police, outrageously, the accused individuals are brought before their colleagues – who decide the outcome. The judges suspend hearings; they threaten the people in the courtroom. We are witnessing the exacerbation of impunity.”

Outrage outside the court for the 10 year sentence. People denounce judges in the case and say 10 years isn’t enough. pic.twitter.com/IabEdt2Duv
— Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) June 11, 2022

With the court’s decision reaffirming that Añez did infact usurp power, victims of the coup regime promise to bring criminal lawsuits against her and her accomplices for all the carnage and corruption carried out after the seizure of power.

Jeanine Añez was quick to absolve security of any harm or injuries they might cause as they secured her rule. Presidential decree 4078, issued by Añez and her defacto Ministers, referred to commonly as a “license to kill”, is expected to be at the center of another case against the former Senator and the prominent figures of her defacto coup administration.

At the close of her trial on Friday, Jeanine Añez stated that she’s proud of her year in power, and would repeat the same actions again. Two of her police and military co-conspirators were sentenced to 10 years, while four others were sentenced to 2-4 years.

Details of the decision and considerations behind the sentence will be presented at a hearing to be held Wednesday.

(Kawsachun News) by Cindy Forster