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LATIN AMERICA | 30-10-2020 14:17

Bolivian lawmakers recommend charges against ex-interim president Áñez

Bolivia's outgoing parliament on Thursday approved a motion recommending that ex-interim president Jeanine Áñez and her ministers face justice for responsibility over last year's unrest which left around 30 people dead.

Bolivia's outgoing parliament on Thursday approved a motion recommending that ex-interim president Jeanine Áñez and her ministers face justice for responsibility over last year's unrest which left around 30 people dead.

The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, meeting in joint session, approved a parliamentary report on the "massacres of Senkata, Sacaba and Yapacani, which recommends a judgment of responsibility against Jeanine Áñez for genocide and other offences", according to the Senate's Twitter account.

Parliament also approved the criminal indictment of 11 ministers.

A parliamentary commission, controlled by the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party of  former president Evo Morales, spent months investigating incidents that took place in several regions of the country between October and November 2019, which left about 30 dead.

It presented its report on Tuesday, a little over a week after new socialist president-elect Luis Arce, the MAS candidate, won the general election.

An investigation by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) found that 35 people were killed in these incidents.

The unrest came after Morales won an unconstitutional fourth term in an election that sparked weeks of protests and charges of fraud.

Morales was forced to resign on November 10 before going into exile in Mexico and then Argentina.

Conservative former senator Áñez assumed power as interim president after Morales fled.

Senate president Eva Copa, a member of MAS, specified that the report would be submitted to the Bolivian prosecution for opening possible proceedings.

She is also counting on the fact that the report will likely be approved by the new parliament, where the MAS retains its majority and which is due to take office next week.

No Maduro

Bolivia's outgoing interim government will not invite Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro to Arce's inauguration, Bolivia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Maduro was a close ally of Evo Morales, but he won't be at Arce's November 8 inauguration as interim president Jeanine Áñez's conservative government doesn't recognize him as Venezuela's rightful leader, backing opposition figure Juan Guaidó instead.

The Foreign Ministry said the Arce administration had asked to invite Maduro and Morales, who currently lives in exile in Argentina, to the La Paz ceremony but that it "will not extend such invitations."

Morales, who spent almost 14 years in power before resigning amid protests at his controversial reelection to an unconstitutional fourth term a year ago, has already confirmed he will not return to Bolivia until November 9.

When Áñez took power, she broke off relations with Maduro's government, which had been very close to the Morales regime during the 14 years when both countries were run by socialist leaders.

Arce's administration did not comment on the decision.

– AFP

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