Bolivian Justice Sentenced Añez to 10 Years in Prison

Añez and six former military and police chiefs are being prosecuted for the events that occurred in November 2019, when she unconstitutionally took over the country’s presidency as part of a coup against former president Evo Morales, which led to a period of violence and repression against indigenous leaders and social organizations.

According to the accusation, the then second vice speaker of the Upper House Bolivia’s Congress violated three articles of the Senate’s regulations in order to proclaim herself the head of that legislative body without the required quorum.

She then violated three other articles of the rules of procedure of the Chamber of Deputies by installing an illegal session of the Legislative Assembly and, finally, she violated nine precepts of the Political Constitution of the State to usurp the first magistracy of the nation to the detriment of the parliamentary majority, the Movement Towards Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo).

Añez’s sentence was announced Friday after the unanimous vote of the Court, which also ordered the imprisonment of former Armed Forces Commander Williams Kaliman, Police Commander Vladimir Yuri Calderon and other implicated parties.

The former senator will have to serve her sentence in the Women’s Guidance Center of Miraflores, in La Paz.

During the coup and the regime installed by Añez, Bolivia suffered massacres by military and police forces against civilians, including summary executions that left at least 37 dead and hundreds wounded.