Bolivia: the prosecution accuses of "genocide" the former interim president Jeanine Añez
Former interim president Jeanine Añez in La Paz, November 15, 2019. RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Former Bolivian interim president Jeanine Añez, currently behind bars for corruption, is accused of "
genocide
" by the prosecution for the bloody repression of demonstrations in November 2019, which killed dozens of people.
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With our correspondent in La Paz,
Alice Campaignolle
The report of the group of independent experts of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, submitted Tuesday, August 17, gave the green light to the authorities to accuse the former president of "
genocide
".
It is the prosecution which launched the procedure, this Friday, August 20, by admitting the accusation of the families of the victims.
Thanks to this very comprehensive report, it is now clear that in November 2019 there was a disproportionate use of force against
demonstrators
, killing 20 people.
►
Read also: Bolivia: international experts report on the violence of 2019
The trial may not take place
It is a liability lawsuit that the authorities want to bring against Jeanine Añez, a procedure intended for heads of state who have committed or allowed serious crimes.
The national prosecutor Wilfredo Chávez explains how, according to him, we can speak of “
genocide
”: “
What we are referring to here is the bloodthirsty massacre, which is one of the expressions of genocide.
A slaughter of civilians, of unarmed people, whose reunification absolutely did not require such a military deployment.
"
A liability lawsuit must be approved by Parliament by two-thirds of the votes.
This is where the shoe pinches: the government does not have two-thirds of the legislature.
It could therefore be that this trial does not take place, because the opposition considers
Jeanine Añez
as a political prisoner, whose sentence would be a revenge in the face of the forced departure of
Evo Morales
in November 2019.
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Justice
Bolivia
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