Bolivia has been witnessing a sequence of vengeance & turmoil between two of its leaders. The former president (interim) Jeanine Anez has been recently jailed. The Washington-based body, Organization of American States (OAS) has criticized the arrest of Jeanine Anez, & subsequently the perceived interference of OAS in the internal affairs of Bolivia was criticized by Mexico.

In the course of events, three judges of a La-Paz court had accepted her release and transfer to a hospital for the purpose of examinations by cardiology specialists in order to protect her life and her health. Jeanine Anez stated in a letter that in her pre-trial detention, her rights were violated. She blamed that the doctors have injected her with high-risk medication and hence she cannot trust the government. In this regard, US has expressed its concern and the Organization of the American States has demanded her release and questioned the impartiality of Bolivian Courts.

Jeanine Anez was arrested on charges of leading a Coup-d’état against her Left-leaning predecessor Evo Morales. Anez has been known to be more aligned with the capitalist order of the world in opposition to the economic stand-point of Morales, which leans towards socialism. In September 2020, it was alleged, that her government’s plan was to privatize power company ELFEC, which was nationalized by the government of former socialist leader Evo Morales.

A former Cocalero (coca-leaf growers of Bolivia & Peru) activist, Evo Morales, who had served as the 65th President of Bolivia, is regarded as the first President who hails from the indigenous population. He was born in a family of subsistence farmers. He is one of the leaders, who had led Bolivia into Pink-tide, taking the economic orientation of the country away from the neo-liberal order towards Socialism. He has been a leader of the Movement of Socialism party which he had founded in 1998. His ideological opponent, Jeanine Áñez now in trouble, was the second female President after Lidia G Tejada. She is a member of the Democrat Social Movement party, a centre-right organization.

After the 2019 general election in Bolivia, protests had erupted under allegations of election fraud, and that led to the ouster of the then incumbent President, Evo Morales, who led in the election by a small margin of around 10%. The protests against the election began after some political disputes were triggered by the unexplained 20 hours gap in the transmission of the results. That led to increasing pressure from the military which made Evo Morales flee from power, allowing the Bible-bashing conservative Jeanine Anez to become the interim leader.

After her (Anez’s) rise to power, military and police were given immunity for their actions. Subsequently, a group of cocalero, known to be associated with the Movement of Socialism party, tried to enter Cochabamba, as a part of protest against the ouster of Evo Morales. That led to the spread of protests across places like Senkata & Sacaba. When the government forces tried to break the blockade of protesters in Senkata, there were clashes, which in turn led to Senkata & Sacaba massacre causing at least 19 deaths. That massacre in a way triggered events against the political future of Jeanine Anez.

The tables started slowly turning on Anez, when her interim presidency was characterized with violations of human rights, like arbitrary detentions & restrictions on free speech. On March 13, 2021, she was arrested on the charges of conspiracy, sedition & terrorism. The charges against her had origins in the events which led to the removal of Evo Morales, who had been in power for 14 years for three terms and was looking forward to his fourth-term. Anez’s arrest was celebrated by many in the Latin American’s Left front as the fall of a leader who had played a crucial role in the coup that forced Bolivia’s first indigenous President (Morales) away from power.

The South American country is now experiencing a cycle of reprisals, between Evo Morales & Jeanine Anez, with the latter currently behind bars.