Bolivia ex-President Jeanine Anez arrested in 'coup' probe

Bolivia's former interim president Jeanine Anez was arrested Saturday on terrorism and sedition charges over what the government claims was a coup attempt against her predecessor and political rival Evo Morales.

Police were also rounding up former ministers who backed the conservative politician's caretaker government, which was in place for a year after Morales fled the country in November 2019 amid disputed elections, media reports said.

The arrests came months after Morales returned to Bolivia from exile on the back of a fresh election victory in October 2020 for the leftist Movement for Socialism (MAS) party he founded. Both the presidency and congress are now under the control of MAS.

"I inform the Bolivian people that Mrs. Jeanine Anez has already been apprehended and is currently in the hands of the police," government minister Carlos Eduardo del Castillo wrote on Twitter and Facebook.

Castillo congratulated the police for their "great work" in the "historic task of giving justice" to the Bolivian people.

Bolivia's public prosecutor issued an arrest warrant Friday for the conservative politician and others on charges of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy.

Anez tweeted a copy of the warrant with the response: "The political persecution has begun."

She added the government was accusing her "of having participated in a coup d'etat that never happened."

In the early hours of Saturday, Bolivian television showed images of Anez, not handcuffed, arriving at La Paz's El Alto airport, accompanied by Castillo and several police officers.

In brief remarks to the press, she denounced her arrest as "illegal."

It was not immediately known where she was taken.

Anez's former energy minister Rodrigo Guzman and his justice counterpart Alvaro Coimbra, both listed on the prosecutor's warrant, were detained on Friday.

Coimbra protested the "illegal and abusive" arrest of his former colleague Guzman, before he, too, was brought in.

"We have said that we will always make ourselves available to the law," Coimbra told Bolivian TV as he was placed into a police vehicle.

Anez, a former senator, took over as caretaker president after Morales left Bolivia. He had lost the support of the armed forces amid violent protests against his re-election to an unconstitutional fourth term.

Several Morales allies who held senior posts also fled, leaving Anez the most senior Senate official still standing.

Morales returned from exile last November, and took over the leadership of the ruling MAS party.

Bolivia's congress is dominated by the MAS, which romped to victory in an October 2020 general election that saw the party's Luis Arce win the presidency.

Last month, congress voted to give amnesty to those prosecuted during Anez's presidency for acts of violence during the chaos that followed Morales' resignation.

MAS party member Lidia Patty filed a complaint against Anez last December, claiming she, several of her former ministers, ex-military and police members, and others had promoted the overthrow of Morales, who had been in power for 14 years.

"The MAS has decided to return to the style of dictatorship. It is a shame because Bolivia does not need dictators, it needs freedom and solutions," Anez tweeted Friday.

Luis Fernando Camacho, who recently won elections for the governorship of Bolivia's Santa Cruz region, is also targeted for prosecution.

He vowed that "Bolivians will not stand idly by in the face of abuse" and said he had no intention of leaving the country.

Anez, a former lawyer, is a longtime critic of leftist Morales, who has branded her "a coup-mongering right-wing senator."

He said Anez had "declared herself... interim president without a legislative quorum, surrounded by a group of accomplices."

Ex-presidents Jorge Quiroga and Carlos Mesa separately condemned the arrests.

"We are in a process of political persecution worse than in dictatorships. It is executed against those who defended democracy and freedom in 2019," Mesa said on Twitter.

Quiroga accused Arce of being "a tyrant's apprentice."

But Justice Minister Ivan Lima insisted the system was independent from government.

"We cannot interfere in cases brought by the prosecutor and by justice. These cases must be pursued within the framework of objectivity and independence," said Lima.

For his part, Senate President Andronico Rodriguez repeated claims of a coup attempt and said: "This is not persecution, it is justice."