Jeanine Añez, 58, was released after more than four years in prison when Bolivia's Supreme Court annulled her 10‑year sentence, ruling she should have been tried by a special tribunal for lawmakers. Añez has defended her actions, saying the 2019 crisis stemmed from electoral fraud rather than a coup. Her release comes two days before centre‑right president‑elect Rodrigo Paz is sworn in, signaling a political shift from the Morales era. The decision focuses attention on legal procedure and ongoing political divisions in Bolivia.
Bolivia's ex‑president Jeanine Añez released after Supreme Court annuls 10‑year sentence
Jeanine Añez, 58, was released after more than four years in prison when Bolivia's Supreme Court annulled her 10‑year sentence, ruling she should have been tried by a special tribunal for lawmakers. Añez has defended her actions, saying the 2019 crisis stemmed from electoral fraud rather than a coup. Her release comes two days before centre‑right president‑elect Rodrigo Paz is sworn in, signaling a political shift from the Morales era. The decision focuses attention on legal procedure and ongoing political divisions in Bolivia.
23:32, 06.11.2025Politics
Jeanine Añez freed after top court voids sentence
Bolivia's former interim president Jeanine Añez was released from a women's penitentiary in La Paz on Thursday, more than four years after her detention, following a Supreme Court decision that annulled a 10‑year sentence against her.
Añez, 58, emerged from the prison waving a Bolivian flag and was greeted by relatives and supporters. Speaking through a loudspeaker at the prison gates, she said,
"I will never regret having served my country."
Añez, a former senator, assumed the interim presidency in November 2019 after President Evo Morales fled amid weeks of violent protests over a disputed election. On taking office she famously held up a large Bible, declaring, "Thank God, the Bible has returned to the Bolivian government," a gesture that many viewed as provocative toward Bolivia's Indigenous majority — the community Morales represents.
Morales had sought a contentious fourth term in 2019. After weeks of unrest and accusations of electoral fraud, the military urged Morales to step down; his party accused opposition figures of orchestrating a coup. Observers remain divided over whether events constituted a coup or a political crisis driven by disputed election results and mass protests.
Añez was arrested in 2021, after the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party returned to power in 2020, and later convicted of illegally assuming the presidency. On Wednesday the Supreme Court said her conviction was void because she should have been tried by a special tribunal that handles alleged crimes committed by lawmakers in the course of their duties, rather than by ordinary criminal courts.
Her release comes two days before centre‑right president‑elect Rodrigo Paz is due to be sworn in, marking a transition away from roughly two decades of Morales‑era socialism. The case is expected to continue to provoke debate in Bolivia over accountability, legal procedure and the political legacy of 2019.