MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New charges to be filed against Jeanine Áñez in Bolivia

Even if she goes on a hunger strike, Áñez will be tried in absentia, Lima explained

Bolivian judicial sources Monday reported a fourth set of charges could be filed against former interim President Jeanine Áñez for crimes that took place during her spell as acting head of state.

Áñez is already on her sixth day of a hunger strike since the even of a trial against her started last week, which was lñater adjourned due to technical dificulties.

The new indictment, according to the sources, would be linked to the 37 deaths from the Sacaba and Senkata massacres, two towns where the armed forces quashed anti-Government demonstrations.

Áñéz is currently charged is the so-called Coup d'Etat II case for being appointed President when she was not next in line following the resignationsof Evo Morales and Álvaro García-Linera and also for failing to discharge her rightful duties as a Senator.

Then there is the so-called Coup d'etat I case, which consists of charges of sedition and terrorism, with the Constitutional Court yet to rule on which procedural rule to apply.

There is also a third case for alleged irregularities in the appointment of Karina Fabiola Leiva Añez de Ruiz as manager of the Bolivian Food Company (EBA) in 2020.

This time around, relatives of the Sacaba and Senkata victims seek justice: “We declared an emergency because as victims of Mrs. Añez in her de facto government there were [people] wounded and deceased” and “this cannot go unpunished.”

In this scenario, Justice Minister Iván Lima said Monday that, in accordance with recommendations from the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI-Bolivia), the State was to enforce “memory, truth and justice” for the victims of the 2019 events, for which he vowed nobody would be granted impunity.

”Now we have a Law to Strengthen the Fight against Corruption that allows us in cases of corruption and serious human rights violations to carry out (a process) in absentia even when Áñez goes on a hunger strike. In these cases, the process can continue in rebellion by mandate of the law,“ Lima said.

”Whoever does not want to give an account to justice, will be subjected to a trial in absentia, this will not stop for any reason, because the Government's concept is that we will not cease in this effort to achieve justice,” Lima went on.

Lima insisted Áñez will be tried as a former senator and not as de facto president because she failed to comply with articles 168 and 169 of the Constitution in addition to Senate regulations when she first proclaimed herself Speaker of the Upper House who later became head of State.