FORMER BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT JEANINE ÁÑEZ FREED AFTER SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS 10-YEAR SENTENCE
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
Bolivia’s former interim president, Jeanine Áñez, was released from prison on Thursday, more than four years after her arrest, following a Supreme Court ruling that annulled her 10-year sentence for allegedly orchestrating a coup.
Áñez, 58, emerged from a women’s penitentiary in La Paz, waving a Bolivian flag to cheering supporters and relatives.
“I will never regret having served my country,” she declared through a loudspeaker at the prison gates.
Áñez, a former senator, assumed Bolivia’s presidency in 2019 after then-leader Evo Morales fled the country amid widespread protests and allegations of election fraud. Upon taking office, she famously held up a Bible and proclaimed, “Thank God, the Bible has returned to the Bolivian government” a remark many viewed as a jab at the country’s indigenous population, which includes Morales himself, the first indigenous president in Bolivia’s history.
Morales’ Movement for Socialism (MAS) party later accused Áñez and opposition figures of staging a coup. However, many international observers dismissed the claim, noting that the military never seized power during the transition.
In 2021, after the MAS returned to power under Morales’ ally Luis Arce, Áñez was arrested and convicted of illegally assuming the presidency.
“There was never a coup d’état,” Áñez said upon her release. “What happened was electoral fraud that led all Bolivians to demand our right to have our votes respected.”
The Supreme Court ruled that Áñez had been tried improperly, stating that she should have faced a special tribunal designated for lawmakers accused of crimes committed during their official duties, rather than the ordinary criminal court system.
Her release comes just two days before the swearing-in of Bolivia’s new centre-right president-elect, Rodrigo Paz, marking the end of nearly two decades of socialist rule ushered in by Morales.
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