Áñez was imprisoned in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in prison for “resolutions contrary to the law”, in a case in which she was accused of illegally assuming the presidency after the resignation of Evo Morales in 2019.
The former president of Bolivia Jeanine Áñez was released this Thursday, November 6, from a prison in La Paz where she was held for more than four and a half years for an alleged coup d’état, after her sentence was annulled, AFP journalists confirmed.
A hundred of her supporters and relatives celebrated the release of the former right-wing ruler, who left the women’s prison in La Paz around 3:00 p.m. GMT waving a national flag.
«It is pleasant to see that justice in Bolivia will reign again. “She is the only woman who took office with bravery and courage,” Lizeth Maure, a 46-year-old nurse, said in front of the penitentiary center.
Áñez, a 58-year-old lawyer, governed for one year, until November 2020, when she was replaced by leftist Luis Arce.
She was imprisoned in 2021 and sentenced the following year to 10 years in prison for “resolutions contrary to the law”, in a case in which she was accused of illegally assuming the presidency after the resignation of Evo Morales in 2019.
His conviction was annulled on Wednesday by the Supreme Court of Justice, the highest judicial instance.
The argument was that Áñez had, before being tried in a criminal court, a “trial of responsibilities” in Congress, a prerogative that presidents, vice presidents, ministers and high magistrates have.
The right-wing politician left the La Paz women’s prison at 14:58 GMT, while waving a Bolivian flag as she was greeted by her family and followers.
I feel “the satisfaction of having fulfilled my country and that they never defeated me. And I will never regret having served my country when it needed me,” he told AFP upon his departure.
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After the 2019 elections, in which Evo Morales was re-elected amid accusations of opposition fraud, the country plunged into a social crisis, with massive protests. The coca grower leader resigned.
Áñez, then a parliamentarian and second vice president of the Senate, assumed power in November 2019 in a session in which the ruling party did not participate.
«There was never a coup d’état. “What there was was an electoral fraud that led all Bolivians to demand our right to have their votes respected,” the former president said this Thursday.
After his rise to power, citizens also came out to protest against his new government.
The repression carried out by the military and police against the protesters left 36 people dead, according to the Ombudsman’s Office.
He is still being investigated for this case, promoted by the left-wing ruling party.
The most serious events were reported in the town of Sacaba, in the department of Cochabamba (center), and in the neighborhood of Senkata, in the city of El Alto (west).
*Journalism in Venezuela is carried out in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments in place to punish the word, especially the laws “against hate”, “against fascism” and “against the blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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