Release follows supreme court ruling that overturned Jeanine Áñez’s conviction for allegedly staging coup to seize power
The former interim president who oversaw a bloody crackdown on protesters in Bolivia has been freed from prison after almost five years, following a supreme court ruling that overturned her conviction for allegedly staging a coup to seize power.
Jeanine Áñez, 58, left the Miraflores women’s orientation centre in La Paz on Thursday, saying that “the monster had to go” for her to walk free – a reference to the end of nearly two decades of rule by the leftwing Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) party.
This Saturday, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, the 58-year-old president-elect, is due to be sworn into office, replacing Luis Arce of Mas, whose unpopularity led him to abandon plans to seek re-election amid the country’s worst economic crisis in four decades.
“The monster had to go for me to return to life,” said Áñez as she left prison, holding a Bolivian flag.
