Arce Continues to Weaponize Bolivia’s Courts

Arce Continues to Weaponize Bolivia’s Courts
Bolivian President Luis Arce, flanked by Vice President David Choquehuanca, left, and former President Evo Morales, right, at the ruling MAS party’s 26th anniversary in La Paz, Bolivia, March 29, 2021 (AP photo by Juan Karita).

Whatever other misdeeds they may have committed, one would not think of either Evo Morales or Jeanine Anez as being a “terrorist.”

Yet, however implausible the accusation may seem, being criminally investigated for “sedition and terrorism” in the past two years may be the only thing the two former Bolivian presidents have in common.

After Morales resigned and fled the Andean nation in 2019 amid allegations of fraud in that year’s presidential election, the Justice Ministry under Anez’s interim presidency leveled the controversial charges against him, along with “genocide” for good measure. The indictment was based on both the socialist former coca grower’s attempts to cling to power and subsequent street blockades by his supporters, which had supposedly held up oxygen shipments for COVID-19 patients.

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