Former Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez is sentenced to 10 years in prison

MADRID, 11 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The former president of Bolivia Jeanine Áñez has been sentenced this Friday to ten years in prison for the 'Coup d'etat II' case in which she is accused of acting against the Bolivian Constitution by proclaiming herself president of the nation in 2019.

The First Anti-Corruption Sentencing Court of La Paz has unanimously sentenced the former president to a decade in prison, who has reiterated her innocence in the last statement of allegations.

"I did what I had to do, I assumed the presidency by commitment, I assumed the presidency in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, following each of the steps and respecting everything it says; and I feel very proud, and I would do it again if I had the opportunity," declared the former president, according to the Bolivian newspaper 'La Razón'.

Likewise, six former military and police chiefs have been prosecuted for the same acts. The Court has sentenced the former Commander General of the Police, Yuri Calderón, and the former Commander of the Armed Forces, Williams Kaliman, to 10 years in prison.

For his part, the former chief of the military General Staff, Flavio Gustavo Arce, has been sentenced to two years in prison; while the former commander of the Army, Pastor Mendieta, has been sentenced to three years. Jorge Fernández, who was a former inspector general of the Bolivian High Command, has been sentenced to four years in prison, according to the digital media 'Erbol'.

Áñez, --in preventive detention since March 2021-- is accused in the context of what happened in November 2019, when the then president, Evo Morales, left office. Two days later, Áñez herself, then a senator, assumed the Presidency of Bolivia.