WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th March, 2021) The United States follows with concern the developments in Bolivia, where former interim President Jeanine Anez had been detained on suspicion of terrorism and coup conspiracy, and calls on the country to uphold all due process guarantees, Deputy State Department Spokesperson Jalina Porter said in a press briefing on Monday.
"The United States is following with concern that developments surrounding the Bolivian government's recent arrest of former officials," Porter said. "We urge our friends and neighbors in Bolivia to uphold all civil rights and due process guarantees of the American Convention on Human Rights and the principles of the Inter American Democratic Charter."
On Saturday, Bolivian police transferred Anez to La Paz for her to testify in an ongoing coup probe. She was detained overnight on suspicions of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy related to what investigators consider a coup that led to the resignation of former Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Porter pointed out many countries, including the United States, had realized that democratic rule of, by and for people is a "gift that must be respectfully handled."
Morales resigned as president and left Bolivia in November 2019, under pressure from the military, after the Bolivian opposition, led by Carlos Mesa, claimed that there were mass violations during the October 2019 vote. Most of Bolivia's senior officials resigned in his wake.
Power in the country was assumed by then opposition vice-speaker of the senate, Jeanine Anez. Morales called the events a coup.
Anez arranged for a new presidential vote, which took place on October 18, 2020. The election was won by Luis Arce from Morales' Movement for Socialism party (MAS).
Morales reacted to Arce's victory by saying that the Bolivian people managed to regain political power via democracy and that it was a "great triumph of the people." Morales returned to Bolivia in November 2020 after being self-exiled in Mexico and Argentina for almost a year.
