Jeanine Anez Chavez
Jeanine Áñez Chávez is a Bolivian lawyer, television presenter, and politician who assumed the position of interim president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia after the political crisis in Bolivia. 2019, from November 12, 2019, to November 8, 2020. She is the second woman in the history of Bolivia to reach the presidential position, after Lidia Geiler Tejada (1979-1980).
Before being sworn in as head of state, Áñez held the position of second vice president of the Bolivian Chamber of Senators. Although the Political Constitution of the State does not contemplate the second vice-presidency of the Senate to assume the presidency of the country, her ascension was formally endorsed by the Plurinational Constitutional Court two days after the resignation of Evo Morales, declaring that it was done ipso facto, by the precedent established by Constitutional Declaration 0003/01 of July 31, 2001.
Jeanine Áñez | |||||||||||||||||
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| 66th President of Bolivia | |||||||||||||||||
| In-office 12 November 2019 – 8 November 2020 | |||||||||||||||||
| Vice President | Vacant | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Evo Morales | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Luis Arce | ||||||||||||||||
| President of the Senate | |||||||||||||||||
| In-office 12 November 2019 | |||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Adriana Salvatierra | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Eva Copa | ||||||||||||||||
| Second Vice President of the Senate | |||||||||||||||||
| In-office 18 January 2019 – 12 November 2019 | |||||||||||||||||
| President | Adriana Salvatierra | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | María Elva Pinckert | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Carmen Eva Gonzales | ||||||||||||||||
| In-office 19 January 2015 – 20 January 2016 | |||||||||||||||||
| President | José Alberto Gonzáles | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Claudia Torres | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Yerko Núñez | ||||||||||||||||
| Senator for Beni | |||||||||||||||||
| In-office 18 January 2015 – 12 November 2019 | |||||||||||||||||
| Alternate | Franklin Valdavia | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Carlos Sonnenschein | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Cecilia Moyoviri | ||||||||||||||||
| In-office 19 January 2010 – 10 July 2014 | |||||||||||||||||
| Alternate | Donny Chávez | ||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Mario Vargas | ||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Donny Chávez | ||||||||||||||||
| Constituent of the Constituent Assembly from Beni circumscription 61 | |||||||||||||||||
| In-office 6 August 2006 – 14 December 2007 | |||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | Cercado | ||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | Jeanine Áñez Chávez 13 June 1967 San Joaquín, Beni, Bolivia | ||||||||||||||||
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| Other political affiliations |
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| Spouse(s) | Tadeo Ribera (m. 1990, divorced)Héctor Hernando Hincapié | ||||||||||||||||
| Children |
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| Alma mater | Bolivian Institute Lincoln Institute José Ballivián Autonomous University of Beni (JSD) | ||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
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On
January 24, 2020, he announced his candidacy for the presidency in the 2020 general elections by the political
alliance "Together". Although,
on September 17 he declined his candidacy to "avoid dispersing
the vote of the anti-MAS bloc " in said
elections. His mandate ended on November 7, 2020, when he transferred
command to Luis Arce Category.
On June 10, 2022, she was sentenced to ten years in prison for the crimes of "breach of duties" and "resolutions contrary to the Constitution", by the First Anti-Corruption Sentencing Court of La Paz.
Career
Jeanine Áñez was born on June 13, 1967, in
the town of San Joaquín in the Department
of Beni. Her parents were teachers, and she was
the last daughter of a total of seven children of the marriage.
She began her school studies in 1972, in a rural school called "August 21" for girls only. Her mother would become the director of this small educational unit. She graduated with a bachelor's in 1984 from the "Capitán Horacio Vásquez Sánchez" School in her hometown.
In 1985, Jeanine Áñez moved to live in the city of La Paz.
In La Paz, Ella Áñez initially began studying secretarial courses at the Bolivian Institute and then at the Abraham Lincoln Institute.
In 1988, she moved to the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra where she completed her technical training, passing computer and English courses.
In that city, she would meet the Beniano lawyer Tadeo Ribera Bruckner (1960-2020) who would be her first husband and with whom she would have her only two children; Carolina Ribera Áñez (1990) and José Armando Ribera Áñez (1995).
In 1990, Jeanine Áñez together with her
husband decided to move to the city of Trinidad,
where they would establish their family and where their two children would also
be born. Already in that city, the then young couple started a business by
opening their own family restaurant, and during the 1990s Jeanine Áñez would go on to
study at the Faculty of Legal, Political and Social Sciences of the Autonomous
University of Beni "José Ballivián" (UABJB). ), graduating years
later as a lawyer by profession in Legal Sciences and Law in 1997.
In 1993, her husband entered politics as a councilor for the municipality of Trinidad representing the Unidad Cívica Solidaridad (UCS) party, belonging at the time to political leader Max Fernández Rojas.
In the municipal elections of December 1995, Tadeo
managed to get elected as mayor of the city of Trinidad for the period 1996-2000
again representing the UCS.
During her working life, Áñez has served as a director and television presenter on Totalvisión and as a member of the National Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Movement (MDS).
Constituent
Assembly (2006–2008)
From 2006 to 2008, she served as part of
the constituent assembly to draft a new constitutional charter. She was a
member of the Constituent Assembly on behalf of the organization and structure
of the country, and also worked as part of the judiciary.
Senate
(2010–2019)
In 2010, she was elected as a senator for
the Bolivian Plan Progress and National Convergence (PNP) party representing
the Beni department in the National Assembly. By 2019, she was the second
vice president of the Senate, with Franklin Valdivia Leigh as her second vice president. The position made her sixth in the line of
succession to the presidency.
In 2011, Agnes opposed the Morales government's
approval of a financial bill to build the Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos
highway. She argued that this was not approved with due regard to the
indigenous peoples and institutions of the region, stating that "the
rights of the indigenous peoples have been violated", a view echoed by the
leader of the indigenous inhabitants of the territory of the Isiboro-Secure
National Park (TIPNIS), Adolfo Moye, who said the law was passed "without
considering the serious impact on the region's ecosystem and natural
reserves".
In 2012, Agnes and her colleague in the
legislature, Adrian Oliva, submitted a report to the Commission on Human Rights
of the Chamber of Deputies of Uruguay in an attempt to publicize human rights
violations in Bolivia. According to the United Nations Office for Refugees
and the UNHCR, at the time there were about 600 Bolivian exiles or refugees,
100 political prisoners, and at least 15 cases of torture. The UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights said that Bolivia has a "crisis in the
administration of justice." Also in 2012, Agnes was elected Bolivian
representative to the Amazon Parliament.
In 2013, there were a series of nationwide
strikes and protests against the government of the DCS over
the reduction of seats in the Chamber of Deputies of Beni, Potosi, and
Chuquisaca. As a senator from Beni, Agnes joined the pickets and was among
six lawmakers and a dozen NSAMC indigenous representatives who went on a hunger
strike to protest against the law, passed by a majority of the DCC in
both houses.
In 2014, Agnes complained about the
government's lack of financial transparency. Requests from opposition
legislators for reports with which they could check the activities of the state
were shelved, and in 499 out of 1979 cases during the period 2013-14. There
was no answer. Under the rules of procedure of the Chamber of Deputies,
the authorities were given 10 working days to respond to a request for a report
and 15 days in the Senate. If a request for a written report is not
answered, a 48-hour injunction may be issued. Agnes said that in many
cases these orders were ignored and there was a "denial of
information." Many of the projects had large budgets with multiple
stakeholders for whom access was even more limited. She said that many of
the inquiries that were answered, "remained unanswered." Responses
included two sheets of photocopies, materials unrelated to the request, or
boxes filled with documents that "did not aim to clear doubts, but
hindered the legislators' work." In 2019-2020, many of these cases
are being investigated.
Interim presidency (since 2019)
On October 20, 2019, presidential elections were held, which were won by the incumbent President Evo Morales immediately in the first round. Mass protests began in the country.
On November 10,
under pressure from the military, Evo Morales resigned. Following him, the
vice-president of Bolivia, Alvaro
Garcia Linera, resigned from the
duties of the president, according to the constitution. After that, the speaker of the Senate, Adriana Salvatierra,
also resigned from the duties of the president., Chairman of the House of Representatives Victor Borda,
First Vice-Speaker of the Senate. Jeanine Agnes was next in line as the
Senate's second vice speaker. As of November 10, 2019, she was the
highest-ranking official in the succession to the presidency of Bolivia. She
took over the duties of the president.
She said that her first task would be to
achieve a quorum after a series of resignations of the first persons
of the state and then call new elections. Agnes could not call an
emergency meeting until the next day (Monday), as she was in the department of
Beni, and there are no Sunday flights from there to the capital La Paz.
She took office on November 12, 2019, by Article 169 of the Constitution of
Bolivia, as soon as the Senate officially accepted the resignations of the
previous leadership of the country. Agnes received votes from opposition
parties that make up a third of parliament. These actions were later
upheld by the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal. The session was not
attended by members of the " Movement
for Socialism " (DZS),
who had a majority in parliament and called the session "illegal". The
absence of MPs from the DZS meant that Agnes did not have the necessary
parliamentary quorum to legally be appointed acting president. The
previous President of the Senate,
Adriana Salvatierra, resigned
on November 10, 2019, however, despite this, Salvatierra argued on November 13
that the resignation had not yet been accepted by the Senate, and therefore she
remains in the position of President of the Senate.
On November 14, 2019, the Senate accepted
the resignation of Salvatierra and elected Eva Kopa Murga of the Movement for Socialism as chairman.
Against the backdrop of a promise to
"restore democracy", Agnes unveiled her new cabinet of government. Among
its senior ministers were prominent businessmen from Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Her
government did not include Bolivian indigenous people, which The Guardian described as a sign that she "has no intention
of overcoming the country's deep political and ethnic divisions." The
interior secretary-designate vowed to "hunt down" his predecessor,
reportedly raising fears of a "witch hunt" against members of the
Morales administration. She also stated that Morales would not be allowed to run
for a fourth term in the upcoming elections if he returned to Bolivia.
In the face of protests against the interim government, Agnes called on the police to restore order and issued a decree on November 14 that frees the military from any kind of criminal liability while maintaining order.
On November 15, security forces were accused of
shooting protesters at coca farmers in Cochabamba, killing nine people and injuring dozens. The
decree was condemned by the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American
States and was canceled two weeks later.
Social policy
On February 6, 2020, Agnes invited the
people of Bolivia to take part in a march in Santa Cruz in support of the fight
against violence against women and children, an issue that is increasingly
covered by the Bolivian press.
On International Women's Day, March 8, 2020, Agnes announced a $100 million investment to end violence against women. She declared 2020 the Year of Combating Feminicide and Infanticide in Bolivia, saying: “I am the worst news for all those killers of women, violent, rapists, stalkers and rapists because I will not get tired of fighting these aggressors”.
Arrest and prosecution
Arrest
On March 12, 2021, the Bolivian Attorney
General's Office issued an arrest warrant for Jeanine Añez and five members of
her government for terrorism, insurrection, and conspiracy.
In response, Agnes tweeted: “Political
persecution has begun. MAS decided to return to the style of dictatorship. It's
a shame because Bolivia doesn't need dictators, it needs freedom and
solutions". The arrest was condemned as political persecution by
members of the opposition, including civil society leader Carlos Mesa and the
elected governor of Santa Cruz, Luis
Fernando Camacho.
Her interim presidency was characterized by numerous human rights violations, such as "state violence, restrictions on freedom of speech and arbitrary detention". At least 23 indigenous civilians were killed during pro-Morales demonstrations. A report by the International Clinic for Human Rights at Harvard Law School and the University Human Rights Network concluded that government officials were responsible for the deaths. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights classified the deaths of civilians in the cities of El Alto and Saqaba as massacres and confirmed that as a result of the post-election violence at least 36 people were killed and recommended that those responsible be brought to justice.
On October 29, 2020, the Bolivian
Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, in a joint session, approved a
parliamentary report on the “massacres in Senecas, Sacaba, and Yapacani”, which
recommended that Jeanine Agnes be charged with genocide and other crimes, and
approved criminal charges against 11 ministers.
Actual
detention
In the early hours of March 13, 2021, Agnes
was arrested at her relatives' home in Trinidad, where she was hiding under a
bed, on charges of terrorism, sedition, and conspiracy. The accusations are
related to the events surrounding the removal of Morales from power in November
2019, which prosecutors described as a coup d'état and the massacres in Senkat
and Sakaba. Five more members of her cabinet and the leadership of the
armed forces were also arrested. Agnes called the arrests a campaign of political
persecution.
On March 14, the judge ordered that she be
placed under pre-trial detention for four months pending trial. The judge
also issued arrest warrants for former military commander Williams Kaliman and
former police commander Youri Calderon, who were allegedly outside of Bolivia.
On March 19, Agnes went on a hunger strike and became depressed after her request to be transferred to a medical facility was denied. Her daughter stated that she had previously had problems with depression and hypertension. Judge Armando Zeballos ruled that Agnès should not be transferred from prison to a hospital, as she could be treated by prison doctors. According to Agnes's family, the court authorized the transfer to the hospital, but the government refused to comply with the order.
On March 20, she was transferred to Miraflores Prison.
On the same day, a La
Paz court extended her pre-trial detention from four to six months to allow
more time for an investigation. The court also extended the pre-trial
detention of two of its ministers: Energy Minister Rodrigo Guzmán and Justice
Minister Alvaro Coimbra.
On March 23, Agnes released a letter from
prison condemning abuse and torture, calling Luis Arce's government a dictatorship and holding him
responsible for everything that could happen to her in prison. She also
wrote that her health was deteriorating and accused Arce and his ministers of
false accusations. She also accused the government of putting her health
at risk and stated that she did not trust government doctors, claiming that she
was injected with high-risk drugs without precautions or previous medical
examinations for the sole purpose of keeping her in prison. United Nations High CommissionerHuman Rights Commissioner in Bolivia sent a
representative to the prison to investigate the conditions of Agnes ' detention.
On March 27, US Secretary of State Anthony
Blinken called for Agnes's release, stating that the arrests were not in line
with Bolivia's democratic ideals and expressed concern about anti-democratic
manifestations in the country. The Bolivian government rejected Blinken's
statement and accused the United States of meddling in internal affairs.
In April, the European Parliament called Agnes and her government ministers
"political prisoners" and demanded their immediate release. The
House stated that Agnes fulfilled her duty to fill the power vacuum in November
2019 and that she had legitimately come to power. Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch also condemned
her imprisonment and called for the release of her and the ministers.
Suicide
attempt
In August 2021, she attempted suicide in
prison by cutting her forearms. Doctors quickly helped her, who
described it as a "suicide attempt".
Court
On April 15, 2021, Agnes refused to testify in cases involving a loan Bolivia requested from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without legislative approval and other economic crimes of which she was accused. Her lawyer said that she would not testify until she had collected all the evidence and prepared the defense.
On
the same day, the judge issued five more warrants for the arrest of her former ministers,
three of whom - Arturo Murillo, Fernando Lopez, and Yerko Nunez - remain at
large and their whereabouts are unknown.
On April 16, Agnès was visited in prison by
a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Janira Roman of the opposition Civil
Society Party, who said the prisoner's health had improved.
Agnes denounced the psychological torture
and the fact that she was incommunicado. She also denounced the lack of
medical attention, citing the fact that she missed a three-day medication due
to bureaucratic procedures.
On May 20, federal prosecutors filed two
charges against her for "making decisions contrary to the Constitution and
laws" and "breach of duty" during her interim presidency.
On July 5, prosecutors formally charged Agnes with “genocide” in connection with the aforementioned massacres that took place during the 2019 protests, and on July 6, the judge ordered her to remain in custody.
On July 8, Foreign Minister Rogelio Maita accused the
Argentine government Mauricio
Macri of supplying weapons to the Bolivian
army and police during the protests.
On August 13, the court allowed Agnes to be transferred from prison to a private clinic for an assessment of her health.
On
the same day, she was returned to prison.
On August 20, the Bolivian Attorney
General's Office brought new genocide charges against Agnes for the deaths of
protesters during demonstrations in support of Morales.
In a September 2021 letter to the head of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, Agnes stated that she sometimes thinks
that the best solution to her problem is death. She also urged the
Organization to visit Bolivia to "put an end to the pimps of power"
and denounced Evo Morales as a "vile and evil being", reaffirming her
position that she is the rightful president of the country. After sending
the letter, her daughter traveled to the United States to enlist the support of
American legislators to pressure the Bolivian government to release her.
On October 4, 2021, the court extended her
pre-trial detention for another five months, a measure also applied to two of
her former ministers. Agnès's lawyers appealed this decision.
On June 11, 2022, the court found Agnes guilty of "failing to fulfill the duties of a senator" and "making decisions that are contrary to the constitution" and sentenced her to 10 years in prison.
Personal life
Married to Colombian politician Héctor Hernando Incapié Carvajal. The husband ran for the Colombian Senate on the conservative ticket. Gained 0.01% of the vote. Carlos Anes Dorado's nephew is a drug smuggler arrested for smuggling 500 kg of cocaine.
