Bolivia files ‘genocide’ charges against ex-president Anez

The Bolivian prosecutor’s office said on Friday it had filed charges of “genocide” and other crimes against former acting president Jeanine Anez, over the death of 20 opposition protesters in 2019.

Attorney General Juan Lanchipa said he had presented documents “against citizen Jeanine Anez” before the country’s Supreme Court of Justice, including charges for “genocide,” which carries a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison, according to the Bolivian penal code.

The conservative Anez came to power in November 2019 after her predecessor and rival, former president Evo Morales, resigned following weeks of protests over his controversial re-election to an unconstitutional fourth term.

He fled the country after an election audit by the Organization of American States (OAS) found evidence of fraud.

After the election, at least 37 people died in violence that flared between supporters and opponents of Morales, as well as between protesters and the security forces.

Most of the deaths came in clashes between Morales’s supporters and security forces after the socialist leader’s flight.

The specific accusation against Anez relates to two incidents in November 2019 in which a total 22 people died. A report released by the OAS on Tuesday described those incidents as “massacres.”

Lanchipa said they had been “provisionally classified as genocide, serious and minor injury and injury followed by death.”

Bolivia’s opposition has decried the lack of separation of powers in the country, saying the courts, electoral body and public prosecutor’s office are all loyal to leftist President Luis Arce, who is also a member of Morales’s Movement for Socialism (MAS).