The former interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, was released after a court suspended the precautionary measures against her.
The decision includes twelve other defendants in the Senkata case and refers the process to the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, which is responsible for trials of accountability against former presidents.
Court declares itself incompetent
Judge David Kasa reported that the personal and real precautionary measures are rendered ineffective, ordering the issuance of release warrants for both those detained in penitentiary facilities and those under house arrest.
The resolution is based on the declaration of incompetence by the Fourth Sentencing Court of El Alto, which claimed it was impossible to try the case in ordinary jurisdiction. The magistrate emphasized that keeping the accused in pretrial detention violated essential rights established in the Constitution and in international treaties.
With this ruling, the process leaves the ordinary judicial route and will be handled in the Legislative Assembly. Meanwhile, the court of La Paz annulled the ordinary trial against Áñez and the other defendants, confirming that jurisdiction belongs to the Legislature.
The process against the former president was opened due to the repression in Senkata in November 2019, after Evo Morales's resignation. Those events left at least 20 dead and more than 200 injured, considered by the IACHR as a "massacre."
Background of the ordinary trial
The ordinary trial against Áñez had begun in September 2024 under irregular conditions. The former president attended without a lawyer and rejected public defense. Since then, she questioned the legality of the process and called it "hoax 5", referring to the number of cases opened against her.
Áñez insisted on several occasions that the case should move to the Legislative Assembly, claiming immunity due to her status as former head of state. Initially, the ordinary justice system rejected that request.
