Jeanine Áñez: Bolivia’s Former Interim President Arrested over 2019 Coup

Bolivia’s former interim president Jeanine Áñez and several ex-ministers have been arrested over a 2019 coup.

Prosecutors say Jeanine Áñez and the ministers took part in a coup against the then President Evo Morales in 2019.

Evo Morales resigned and fled Bolivia after protests and allegations of electoral fraud.

Jeanine Áñez has said she is the victim of a political vendetta by Evo Morales’s Mas Socialist party, which has since returned to power.

The party won a landslide victory in presidential and congressional elections in October 2020, paving the way for Evo Morales to return to Bolivia from Argentina and take over the leadership of the Mas party.

His colleague Luis Arce was elected president.

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As the most senior senator, Jeanine Áñez became caretaker president after Evo Morales fled. But members of the Mas party accused her, in cahoots with police and military figures, of engineering his overthrow.

Jeanine Áñez was detained in the early hours of March 13 in the city of Trinidad, government minister, Eduardo Del Castillo Del Carpio, announced on Facebook. She was then taken by plane to the city of La Paz.

She earlier tweeted “the political persecution has begun” and said an arrest document listed charges of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy.

Bolivian TV also aired images of former energy minister Rodrigo Guzman and former justice minister Alvaro Coimbra being detained.

Evo Morales fled Bolivia in November 2019 after weeks of violent protests and after losing the backing of the military over his controversial re-election to a fourth term in office.

Several of his allies in senior posts also left the country.