Bolivia's de facto ex-president, Jeanine Añez, in a La Paz prison on June 15, 2022. Juan Karita / AP
By: Roberto Morejón
Probably the former de facto president of Bolivia Jeanine Áñez longs to regain the petulance of the days after the coup d'état of 2019, to now face charges for crimes committed during her administration.
Imprisoned in La Paz since 2021 due to the investigation of the Prosecutor's Office on charges of genocide, murder, and attempted murder, the self-proclaimed ruler is now facing a new indictment.
It is related to the case called Sacaba, a neighboring city of central Cochabamba, where the military committed a massacre after the uprising against former president Evo Morales.
The military also decimated demonstrators against the coup in the town of Senkata, near the city of El Alto.
Almost 40 people died in the repression in both places, but the detainee is facing other trials, including one for which she was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
This was for inappropriately placing herself in the line of constitutional succession after the forced resignation of Evo Morales.
The magistrates are aware that the self-proclaimed first president issued a decree to release from criminal responsibility military personnel participating in what they called "reestablishment of internal order".
Faced with the accumulation of charges, the former de facto ruler tries to block the investigations, remains silent, rejects the competence of prosecutors and judges, and claims that the government is interfering in the process.
This is a smokescreen also fed by her position as a supposedly helpless woman, fed by the Latin American right-wing media.
But the lady of the bible is not the only one involved in bad management because her right-hand man, the former Minister of Government Arturo Murillo, an accomplice in the persecution of opponents, fell in disgrace in his refuge in the United States.
Murillo, who fled Bolivia, recently testified before a jury for fixing overpricing in the purchase of tear gas bombs in 2020.
The Bolivian state charges him with misappropriating just over two million dollars.
The defendant is incarcerated in Miami on a 70-month prison sentence after being convicted of money laundering and bribery.
As can be seen, despite the protective mantle of the hegemonic press, Áñez and some of her henchmen have had to face justice, as most Bolivians demand.
