Bolivia’s Top Court Annuls Áñez’s 10-Year Conviction, Ex-Interim President Is Freed

Overview

• The Supreme Court, led publicly by its president Romer Saucedo, nullified Jeanine Áñez’s 10-year sentence and ordered her immediate release on Wednesday.
• Áñez left the women’s prison in La Paz on Thursday after more than four and a half years in custody, according to journalists on the scene.
• The ruling cited violations of the legal order and of Áñez’s rights and concluded she should face a privileged julgamento de responsabilidade that requires prior congressional authorization.
• Áñez, 58, was arrested in March 2021 and convicted in 2022 for resolutions contrary to the law tied to her 2019 assumption of the presidency following Evo Morales’s resignation.
• The legitimacy of her 2019 ascent remains disputed, and upon release she told supporters there was no coup and said she would never regret serving her country.