Former acting president of Bolivia, Jeanine Añez, targeted by an arrest warrant for "
sedition
" and "
terrorism
", was arrested on Saturday March 13 as part of the investigation into an alleged coup against former head of state Evo Morales.
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"I
inform the people of Bolivia that Ms. Jeanine Añez has already been arrested and is currently in the hands of the police,
" Bolivian Interior Minister Carlos Eduardo del Castillo announced on Twitter and Facebook.
Bolivian television showed images of the former leader on her arrival, not handcuffed, at El Alto airport in La Paz, in the presence of the Minister of the Interior and several police officers, where she immediately qualified her detention. of "
illegal
" in front of the press.
The government "
accuses me of having participated in a coup that never took place,
" reacted on Twitter Jeanine Añez whose place of detention was not disclosed.
The day before, the authorities had deployed a police contingent in front of his residence in the Amazonian town of Trinidad, 600 kilometers from the capital.
“
The MAS (the party of Evo Morales) has decided to return to the habits of the dictatorship.
It is a shame because Bolivia does not need dictators, it needs freedom and solutions,
”said the former leader shortly before her arrest.
Two ex-ministers arrested
Before Jeanine Añez, two former members of the government had been arrested in the city of Trinidad (northeast), the ex-ministers of Energy and Justice, Rodrigo Guzman and Alvaro Coimbra, according to images broadcast by local televisions .
"
We have said that we will always submit to the law,
" Coimbra said at the time of his arrest, denouncing the "
trumped up case of the 'coup'
".
The investigation opened by the prosecution follows a complaint filed in December by a former member of the party of Evo Morales (2006-2019), Lidia Patty.
Read also: The triumphant return of Evo Morales to Bolivia
The arrest warrant concerns several other ministers of the interim government: Yerko Nuñez (Presidency), Arturo Murillo (Interior) and Luis Fernando López (Defense).
The latter two left the country in November.
It also targets former military commanders William Kaliman and Sergio Orellana, as well as former police chief Yuri Calderon.
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Investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) are currently in Bolivia to investigate the violence at the end of 2019.