International
Bolivia president vows to punish ‘coup’ accused
AFP
Bolivia President Luis Arce vowed in a lively parliamentary session Friday to work tirelessly to punish those accused by the government of an alleged coup in 2019, when former leader Evo Morales lost power.
“We won’t cease… to demand the processing and punishment of those responsible for the coup d’etat,” said Arce during an event to mark the founding of Bolivia on August 6, 1825.
He also claimed there were “international accomplices.”
Leftist Morales resigned as president in November 2019 after weeks of protests against his re-election to an unconstitutional fourth term.
The then-leader of the Movement for Socialism party that has dominated Bolivian politics for more than 15 years, quit after losing the support of the military following an Organization of American States (OAS) audit that found clear evidence of fraud in his re-election.
Conservative Jeanine Anez assumed the interim presidency, as she was the highest ranking government official not to have resigned.
She retained that role until new elections, which had been twice postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, were organized a year later.
– ‘Illegitimate and violent acts’ –
Those who provoked the fall of Morales, “must respond to the courts for the illegal, illegitimate and violent acts perpetrated against the people, democracy and the political constitution of the state,” said Arce, who also represents MAS.
He was referring to clashes between MAS supporters and security forces following the resignation of Morales.
Thirty-five people have died in total in clashes between MAS supporters and opponents following the 2019 election.
Centrist former president Carlos Mesa hit out at Arce on social media for pandering to Morales “and his obsession to seek power at any cost.”
In February, the MAS-dominated congress gave political amnesty to those prosecuted for acts of violence in the chaos that followed the election.
Anez and several of her interim ministers, as well as ex-military and police chiefs, have been detained since March, as the government seeks to have them prosecuted for the alleged coup.
Just before her arrest, Anez tweeted: “The political persecution has begun.”
The government claims regional right-wing allies of Anez, such as Ecuador’s then-president Lenin Moreno (2017-2021) and Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) of Argentina, had sent weapons to Bolivia.
They also claim the European Union, Catholic Church and former Bolivian presidents Mesa (2003-2005) and conservative Jorge Quiroga (2001-2002) were part of a conspiracy to oust Morales and replace him with Anez.
The EU has rejected the accusation.
Anez, a former senator, only took power because the vice-president and presidents of both houses of congress — all MAS party members — had also resigned.
The parliamentary session on Friday was interrupted several times by rival politicians shouting at each other.
The day before had seen fresh clashes between government supporters and opponents in La Paz.
International
Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal
On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.
“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.
“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.
Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.
International
Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links
A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.
Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.
However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.
International
Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”
The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.
“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.
The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.
His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”
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