Former Bolivian president refuses Bolsonaro’s invitation to seek asylum in Brazil

President Jair Bolsonaro infuriated the Bolivian government by offering asylum to Jeanine Áñez last Sunday (26). The former head of state was sentenced to ten years in prison earlier this month for irregularly assuming the country’s presidency, following the resignation of Evo Morales in 2019.

Áñez has been detained in a women’s penitentiary in La Paz since March 2021. Through social networks, managed by her relatives, the former Bolivian president thanked Bolsonaro on Tuesday (28). On Twitter, she stressed that “she is innocent” and that “she has not left the country and will not leave”.

The former head of state also reiterated that she “did not know Bolsonaro personally”, although the Brazilian president guarantees that he met with her. “I was only with her once. I thought she was a very nice person, a woman, above all,” she declared.

This counterpoint has been used by the Bolivian government to conclude that the resignation of then-President Evo Morales, in November 2019, was a “coup d’état” engineered with the complicity of external agents. According to Evo Morales’ allies, Brazil, Ecuador, the European Union and the United States took part in this supposed international conspiracy.

“We share the UN’s concerns about Jeanine Áñez’s due process,” insisted on Tuesday, US State Department Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Brian Nichols, in reference to the United Nations’ questions about the independence of justice. Bolivian.

Bolivia accuses Bolsonaro of meddling

The Bolivian government has said that Bolsonaro’s plan to grant asylum to Áñez is “absolutely impertinent”. Governing lawmakers add that the idea does not meet international requirements and reinforces the accusation that the Brazilian president was an accomplice in the coup d’état that brought Áñez to power in November 2019.

Bolivian Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta called Bolsonaro’s proposal “inappropriate interference in internal affairs”. “We regret the unfortunate statements made by the president of Brazil, which are absolutely impertinent, constitute an inappropriate interference in internal affairs, do not respect the forms of relationship between States and do not coincide with the good-neighborly and mutually respectful relations between Brazil and Bolivia. “, he defined.

On Sunday (26), during an interview with the program “4 x 4” broadcast on the internet, Bolsonaro revealed the plan to welcome the former Bolivian president, sentenced last June 10 to ten years in prison for failing to fulfill her duties and for make decisions contrary to the Constitution and the laws.

“Brazil is putting into practice the issue of international relations, human rights, to see if it brings Jeanine Áñez and offers her shelter here in Brazil. It is an injustice to a woman imprisoned in Bolivia,” Bolsonaro said. “We will do everything possible.”

“Mrs. Áñez is being investigated and criminally prosecuted in our country because she has committed several human rights violations and there are sufficient indications that she also committed crimes against humanity,” recalled the Bolivian foreign minister, referring to another case in which Jeanine Áñez is accused. of sedition, terrorism, armed uprising and genocide.

diplomatic complaint

Rogelio Mayta also stated that the Bolivian government will initiate a process against Brazil. “We have already worked on this complaint. We are going to comply with the rules of international relations and, in this case, the right thing is to make a diplomatic complaint”, pointed out the minister.

On the side of government lawmakers, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Freddy Mamani, interpreted that “Bolsonaro’s proposal confirms his complicity in the 2019 coup d’état”. “We are seeing, little by little, how the whole plan for a coup d’etat becomes visible. We knew that this coup was not only internal, but also external”, he accused.

Senator Luis Adolfo Flores also called Bolsonaro’s proposal an “open interference in the decisions of Bolivia’s independent bodies”. According to him, the Brazilian president violates international rules for granting asylum. “An asylum seeker is one who has not yet been processed,” he said.

Presidents of the region were polled

For his plan to grant asylum to former President Áñez, Bolsonaro clarified that it depends “if the Bolivian government agrees” and that he already talked about the matter, earlier this month, during the Summit of the Americas, with some leaders from the Americas. Latina, citing the Argentine Alberto Fernández, an ally of the current Bolivian government.

Bolsonaro also said that Lula is “hypocritical” for not condemning the sentence against Jeanine Áñez, indicating that the concern for human rights has an ideological bias. “Former President [Evo Morales] and the current [Luis Arce] are friends of Lula and he says absolutely nothing about this case,” Bolsonaro said.

The arrival of Jeanine Áñez to power

The then senator Jeanine Áñez assumed the presidency of Bolivia on November 12, 2019, after the resignation of Evo Morales, accused of fraud during the elections that month, at a time when the country was experiencing social upheaval.

Upon leaving office, Evo Morales did not denounce a coup and the entire line of succession —vice president, president of the Senate and president of the Chamber of Deputies—, belonging to his party, also resigned. Jeanine Áñez was the next in that line and her possession was validated by the Supreme Court. Brazil recognized its legitimacy.

As interim president, Áñez stayed in power for a year until Luis Arce, the candidate of Evo Morales, won the elections. In March 2021, the former senator was pre-trial detention until her conviction on June 10. The former commanders of the Armed Forces and the police, who are on the run, were also sentenced. “If they are in Brazil, they will not leave here,” warned Bolsonaro, extending the offer of asylum.