“We regret that in our country the judicial system has been hijacked by those who hold political power, becoming an instrument of repression of freedom of thought, affecting the Constitutional State of Law and democracy (…) the Independent Jurists warn that a maintained authoritarian conduct of the rulers and, worse, such a gross disregard of judicial independence on their part, can lead to open disregard of the Constitution, as happened in 2017 with the illegal Constitutional Sentence 0084/2017 that unleashed the painful crisis of the year 2019”.
This “pronouncement” of the Independent jurists was issued on Monday, June 13, immediately after former President Evo Morales publicly revealed that the decision to prosecute former President Añez was made at a political meeting between Pdte. Arce, Vice President Choquehuanca, Evo Morales himself, Minister Lima and several other authorities and leaders of the MAS.
On Friday the 10th, at night, the operative part of the sentence against Janine Añez had been issued, sentencing her to 10 years in prison for having “self-proclaimed” Pdta., and, clearly, the immediate reaction of Evo Morales intended to attribute himself that “win”.
The calculation was wrong. On Wednesday the 15th, all the media published 5 tweets that Diego García Sayán had broadcast the day before: “Bolivia; What is worrying is what was revealed this Sunday by former President Evo Morales about a political meeting between government leaders agreeing that Ms. Añez be subjected to an ordinary trial and not to a trial of responsibilities (…) the signs of possible intervention by political power in this judicial process concern the international community (…) The Bolivian justice has the opportunity to make the necessary corrections before an appeal or review, if it is presented”.
Evo Morales took only hours to affirm that he had been misrepresented, but given the spread of the international reaction, he had no better idea than to attack the UN Rapporteur, accusing him of “submitting to justice to favor those responsible for a coup…”, of “supporting the coup plotters, injustice and impunity”, and of being “an international official (who) imitates NATO’s military interventionism to become an instrument of judicial interventionism…”.
The government has not commented. After celebrating as “historic” the condemnatory text of the sentence, he has remained silent in the face of the “revelation” and even more silent, after the claim of the UN Rapporteur. No one has denied the meeting in which the jurisdiction that would correspond to Añez was decided, although its scope has been relativized, but there has been no official reaction to the opinions of García Sayán who, moreover, will present his opinion this Monday, June 20 Bolivia’s report at the UN Human Rights Council.
Some preliminary conclusions of what happened:
1. Former President Evo Morales has revealed that the responsibility for government interference in the judicial body lies at the highest level of state leadership, at the head of Pdte. Arce and Vice President Choquehuanca; Hence, the prosecution and conviction of former president Añez for “breach of duties” is due to a political decision of the MAS, leaving aside the Constitution and the laws.
2. The condemnatory political interest of the government and the MAS would have objectives beyond former president Añez and her collaborators; it would seek to initiate another scale of persecution against several opposition leaders who were protagonists of the citizen mobilization during the 2019 crisis. This has been announced by the social organizations dependent on the government and its party.
3. It is difficult to know if this authoritarian vision is unanimous in the government and in the MAS, since it manifests itself at a time of partisan quarrels over the leadership and the candidacies, in addition to the government stagnation in the face of the economic and social crisis.
4. These internal struggles and the incapacities of public management cannot and should not jeopardize the already precarious democratic coexistence, because otherwise we would be returning to the wrong path that led us to the 2019 crisis, after the disregard of the Constitution and the will popular.
5. It is urgent, now more than before, to promote this great national crusade for justice, to recover it from kidnapping, to promote its structural reform and, of course, to curb the authoritarian impulses of the rulers.
