Former Bolivian president arrested

Former Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez was arrested in the early hours of Saturday, March 13, in relation to an investigation into an alleged coup against former leftist president Evo Morales.

Bolivian television showed Áñez arriving at the El Alto airport, which serves La Paz, when  she  called her detention “illegal”,in answer to questions from the press. Next to her was  the Minister of the Interior Carlos Eduardo del Castillo, and several policemen.

“I inform the Bolivian people that Mrs. Jeanine Áñez has already been apprehended and is currently in the hands of the police,” Del Castillo had previously announced on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, congratulating the law enforcement agencies for their “great work. (…) in this great and historical task of giving justice to the Bolivian people ”.

The former president denounced on social networks “an act of abuse and political persecution.”

The government “accuses me of having participated in a coup that never happened,” Áñez added on her Twitter account.

The Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office issued an arrest warrant on Friday against the former right-wing president and several of her ministers, denounced for the crimes of sedition, terrorism, and conspiracy.

The prosecution’s order came from a complaint filed last December by Lidia Patty, a former legislator for Morales’s ruling Movement Toward Socialism (MAS).