2019 crisis versions reach relator and Añez weakens

Ribera asked the jurist to visit her mother. The government reported that the former president's vital signs are within "normal parameters".

The versions about what happened at the end of 2019 yesterday dominated the second day of the visit of Diego García-Sayán, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations (UN) on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. The representative met with authorities of the Departmental Court of Justice of La Paz (TDJ) and a letter from the former president Jeanine Añez to the jurist on the subject was made public.

García-Sayán held a meeting with representatives of the TDJ of La Paz, at its headquarters in downtown La Paz. In the meeting, according to information provided by this media, the representative had planned to learn about the so-called coup d'état case.

After the meeting, the TDJ of La Paz limited itself to disseminate photographs of the meeting through its social networks.

García-Sayán left the premises without making any statement to the press.  A group of people from the Fejuve led by Jesús Vera held a demonstration in the vicinity of the judicial headquarters. When the UN rapporteur was on his way to a vehicle, they shouted "justice!".

Vera, in statements to the press, asked García-Sayán to receive them to know "the truth" of the neighbors of the city of La Paz about the crisis at the end of 2019. "When there has been the coup d'état by Mrs. Añez, in the city of La Paz, the first social organization that has been intervened in an irregular way and with paramilitary groups has been the Fejuve La Paz", indicated the leader. 

Añez's defense, on the other hand, made public a letter from the former president addressed to the UN rapporteur, dated February 15, in which she informs him of "the public evidence of the flagrant interference of the political power and the Executive Branch in the Judicial Branch".

"In the official page of the Ministry of Justice, Minister Iván Lima Magne claims to have demonstrated that there was a coup in Bolivia, without there being to date any investigation framed in the Political Constitution of the State and in charge of the Maximum Supreme Court of Justice to assert such recklessness", reads the letter.

In the letter, Añez shows the "evidence" through four axes, which are: ordinary processes against a former President of the State, the interference of the Ministry of Justice, the interference of the Ministry of Government and the interference of the Attorney General's Office and the Executive.

In the case of the Ministries of Justice and Government, he cites at least eight declarations of authorities of those offices. Among those he mentions is the following: "In March 2021, the Minister of Justice, Iván Lima Magne, publicly confessed that 'because we did not have the 2/3 of the Assembly and we had to build a case, you could not go with such a serious accusation on day one...".

From Añez's Twitter account, it was reported that the former president would give García-Sayán 17 proofs of the interference of the Executive in the Judicial Branch and the Prosecutor's Office. However, the rapporteur did not visit her. 

The exmandataria completed her eighth day of strike yesterday. "I feel weak, with headaches," she tweeted.

Her daughter, Carolina Ribera, asked García-Sayán to meet with the former president. "Let her have an audience with my mother, let her visit her here in the Miraflores prison so that she herself can tell her about all the injustices that have taken place in these months, all the trials and the fabricated crimes," she maintained. 

Alain De Canedo, lawyer of the former president, said that Añez is weakening and regretted that nobody cares. "The former president is weak. Her life is running out, and nobody, absolutely nobody, cares. I really see with great impotence the indolence of the human being, especially of the Bolivian society, especially of the political class. This lady is dying and nobody cares".

The Penitentiary Regime, through a press release, indicated that Añez underwent three medical check-ups yesterday and that her vital signs are "within normal parameters".

García-Sayán also met with the presidents of the Senate and Deputies, Andrónico Rodríguez and Freddy Mamani, who gave him a plaque and a scarf. He also held a meeting with the presidents of the Justice and Constitution commissions of both chambers, all presided by MAS legislators.

The rapporteur was interested in the pre-selection of candidates for high positions in the Judiciary, said Deputy Juan José Jáuregui, president of the Constitution Commission.