January 26, 2023, 4:00 AM
January 26, 2023, 4:00 AM
The Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, described the decision of Judge Marco Antonio Amaru Flores to declare himself competent to try former temporary president Jeanine Áñez for the deaths that occurred in Sacaba and Senkata during the 2019 political crisis as a historical fact. , caused by the resignation of the then president Evo Morales, accused by the OAS of committing electoral fraud. Besides that, The Minister of Justice estimated that the trial will begin in three monthsthat is, in May.
Judge Amaru Flores is the same one who was apprehended twice last year, due to allegations of prevarication and breach of duty for releasing a femicide and a murderer. The Government did not rule on this background, but it did highlight the start of the ordinary trial that aroused criticism from former Bolivian presidents who consider this fact disastrous.
Between March and May 2022, Judge Amaru was apprehended twice. The first, he was shown before the press with handcuffs on his wrist for benefiting a femicide with a freedom action who had been his client when he practiced as a lawyer. The judge was benefited with house arrest.
In the second, Amaru faced a process for the crime of prevarication and breach of duties for granting the house arrest of Jaime Valencia Callisaya, sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder and disappearance of a peasant and a relative. However, he was freed by the judge and former prosecutor Edwin Blanco, accused of imprisoning the doctor Jhiery Fernández in the baby Alexander case without evidence.
Despite the judge’s background, Minister Lima said that “The ordinary route is the only one that guarantees due process for all parties.”
In response, former President Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé stated that there is a “historical ignorance and open violation of the Constitution. Contempt for the victims since 2019.”
He also stated that the Constitution defines the powers for prosecution of the Sacaba and Senkata case, “not the situation or the political calculation by the Government or the Legislative Assembly.”
While the leader of Comunidad Ciudadana, Carlos Mesa, considers that bottom has been reached by violating the Constitution with the ordinary trial of Áñez and the maintenance of indefinite re-election, which he described as “disastrous events” that do not respect international agreements.
