Bolivia’s former interim president, Jeanine Añez, said on Friday that she and several allies could be arrested after issuing a warrant accusing her of terrorism and sedition in connection with the fall of her predecessor in 2019, the former President Evo Morales.
“Political persecution has begun,” Ms. Añez wrote on Twitter, next to an image of the warrant. Authorities arrested her on Saturday morning in her hometown of Trinidad and transported her to the capital, La Paz.
Bolivia has been plunged into political turmoil since the end of 2019, when Morales, a divisive and transformative socialist leader who was the country’s first indigenous president, sought a fourth term.
The presidential campaign ended with a contested vote count, deadly protests and calls from the military for Morales to leave. He fled the country and many called it a coup. Others accused his government of trying to defraud the vote, to show it winning by a margin wide enough to avoid a runoff.
The election and the subsequent violence exposed deep gaps between the country’s indigenous and European descent populations.
When Morales left, his vice president and top Senate leaders also resigned, leaving Añez, a senator from a small conservative party and Morales’ political opponent, to assume the role of interim leader. Then, at the end of 2020, a new election was called and won decisively by Luis Arce, an ally of Morales.
Both Mr. Morales and Ms. Añez used the judiciary to pursue their critics. Mr. Arce, during his campaign, promised to turn a new page in Bolivian politics.
“I have no interest in power,” said Arce in an interview shortly before his election. He promised to stay in office for just five years – a contrast to Morales, who served for almost 14 years and struggled to stay longer – and to focus on fixing the economy.
Until Friday afternoon, at least 10 other people out of the 10 listed in the warrant were arrested by the authorities: ex-Minister of Energy Rodrigo Guzmán and ex-Minister of Justice Álvaro Coimbra, according to Gina Hurtado, aide to Guzmán.
Roger Cortéz, professor emeritus of political science at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia’s political capital, said he saw the arrests as an attempt by the Arce government to present a show of strength at a time when it faces multiple political threats .
Ms. Añez, who has practically disappeared from the political map, does not necessarily represent a danger to Mr. Arce. In the local elections held earlier this month, she finished third in the race for governor of the department of Beni.
But in that same election, Arce’s party, the Movement for Socialism, lost a lot in a critical race for mayor in a former stronghold called El Alto. The winner of this vacancy, Eva Copa, was once a leading member of the Movement for Socialism, but since then has separated from the party.
His ability to win without party support was a major blow to the Movement Towards Socialism. She won more than 60 percent of the vote.
At the same time, the Arce government is under increasing scrutiny over the management of the economy and the coronavirus.
Mr. Cortéz said that Ms. Añez’s arrest was an attempt to divert attention from “the government’s technical, ethical and practical inability to tackle serious problems”.
María Silvia Trigo contributed reporting.