The European Parliament on Thursday 29 April called on the Bolivian authorities to “immediately release” former interim President Jeanine Áñez and two former ministers of the government set up after the controversial October 2019 presidential elections that led to the flight of incumbent President Evo Morales (see EUROPE 12678/25).
Adopting (396 votes in favour, 267 against, 28 abstentions) a joint draft resolution by the EPP, Renew Europe and ECR groups, MEPs condemned the “arbitrary and illegal detention” of the three leaders. According to them, Áñez “fully complied with her duty under the Bolivian Constitution as Second Vice-President of the Senate when filling the presidential vacuum caused by the resignation of former President Evo Morales following the violent riots that were triggered by attempted electoral fraud”.
According to Leopoldo López (EPP, Spain), “Ms Áñez has been unfairly imprisoned and falsely accused of alleged crimes of conspiracy, sedition and terrorism”, even though she assumed the Presidency on a transitional basis “in a legal manner”, following a dialogue held under the auspices of the Church, the European Union and Spain.
On the left of the political spectrum, the tone is quite different. Javi López (S&D, Spain) criticised “conservative forces” in the European Parliament, whose “highly politicised” resolution on Bolivia “seeks to rewrite what has happened in the country in recent years”. “You are now presenting Áñez as a heroine who should be put on a pedestal. You are overstepping all boundaries and leaving the image of this Parliament in tatters. What comes next? Are you going to justify Pinochet and Videla?”, Manu Pineda (The Left, Spain) asked the authors of the resolution.
See the text of the resolution: https://bit.ly/3aP6sFl (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)