It was November 2019, just days after Ivo Morales resigned as Bolivia’s president and fled the country, and the country’s newly-appointed interior minister made no attempt to hide his happiness.
“Any terrorist should spend the rest of his life in prison,” Arturo Murillo boasted during an interview in a recently occupied chamber, vowing to keep the fugitive left behind a prison sentence for the next 30 years.
“It’s not about whether you’re a former president,” insisted the politician, who is made up of Pugnasius hoteliers. “It simply came to our notice then. The former president should be punished twice because people trust his president. “
This week, the former president was actually sent to prison in Bolivia – but not Morales. Instead, it was Murillo’s former boss, Janine Niez, who was seen robbing himself in a La Paz prison cell after being captured by security forces early Saturday. Bolivia’s new justice minister, Ivan Lima, has announced that “we are seeking a 300-year sentence,” as Chavez was charged with terrorism and treason – Murillo made similar allegations against Morales.
Morales became an interim leader after fleeing under military pressure, imprisoned by the bourgeoisie for beating the Bible, and was hailed by some as a source of joy. Many leftists in Latin America celebrated the fall of the politician, claiming they had pushed for the removal of the first indigenous president of Balvia.
“The rebels are in jail!” Brazilian leftist Guilherme Boulos tweeted that news that Áñez was found covering in a storage bed had reached a Bolivian neighbor. He will spend the next four months in pre-trial detention, including 15 days separated from other prisoners as a precaution against Covid-19.
However, others described the arrests as a worrying development in an already divided country, which the new left-wing president, Louis Ars, promised to unite after the Socialist (Mass) Party gained power for the Morales movement in October last year. This week, thousands of protesters took to the streets of cities including La Paz, Kochbamba, Sucre and Santa Cruz to protest the treatment, suggesting that such treatment would have to wait.
“We are in a cycle of revenge,” warned Jim Schultz, founder of the Bolivia-based Democracy Center. “If you are in government and the government changes at this time, you can count on them to follow. [This] Sounds less like a legal process and as if they are trying to destroy each other. “
There are serious doubts about the answers to questions about political rivals and human rights abuses during his long tenure as interim president, which began after Morales fled Mexico and ended after his sensitive election battle last November. Party for power and allow him to return home.
“When he was president, at least 20 months of supporters were killed in two massacres,” said Jose Miguel Vivanko, director of Human Rights Watch America. “Witnesses told us that state forces opened fire on protesters.”
Schultz recalled that after taking power in November 2019, the Bolz turned to the ieldal of prosecuting members of the armed forces who tried to spread unrest in Bolivia. In the days that followed, on November 19, soldiers were accused of firing on unarmed Morales supporters in the city of Al-Luto, killing at least eight people.
Schultz said: “When you have a president who tells the army and the police in advance of any action: ‘Whatever you do, you will not be dealt with’, the message is so clear that you can get: ‘Who do you want to kill?’ Want to ‘. That Legal action should be taken against him. “
It can be done well. On Monday, Ars’s justice minister announced that an investigation into the “bloody massacre” would be completed by June, saying the victims’ mothers were screaming for justice.
So far, however, the charges against him have not been linked to the shooting, but to the plot to claim that the former senator was brought to power by the current government of Bolivia. Vivanko said his group had reviewed Áñez’s chargesheet and found no evidence of a crime. .Latanu, which seemed clear was the “abuse of justice against political opponents”.
Schultz said he has also received claims – masterminding the “pull” to overthrow Morales. Some Mass politicians were constitutionally in line to run for president after resigning but he refused to do so, he noted. “He just caught the ball,” Schultz said of the 5th. “It wasn’t thrown.”
, Who claimed to be the victim of a campaign of political oppression, the only member of her administration not targeted by Bolivia’s new government. Former cabinet members – former Justice Minister V Lvoro Combra and former Energy Minister V Lvoro Rodrigo Guzm – have also been detained. Her former communications minister, Roxana Lizeraga, is seeking asylum in Peru. On Monday, former army commander General George Pastor Mendita Ferufino surrendered to officers in the same investigation.
Meanwhile, Murillo, 57, flew out of the country on the eve of last year’s election, reportedly heading to the United States from Sao Paulo and Panama City. A warrant has also been issued for his arrest.
