La Paz. – The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Bolivia instructed this Friday an immediate review of the preventive detention periods faced by Jeanine Áñez, Luis Fernando Camacho and Marco Antonio Pumari, three of the main opposition figures imprisoned after the 2019 political crisis.
The provision, signed by the president of the TSJ, Romer Saucedo, orders the Departmental Courts of Justice to verify, including ex officio, whether the pre-trial detention times comply with the law, and to do so within a maximum period of 24 hours from notification.
The instructions clarify that this measure does not represent interference in the decisions of judges, but rather an “expression of judicial independence” that seeks to guarantee resolutions free from external pressures.
Áñez, sentenced to 10 years in prison in the case known as coup d’état II, also faces seven other open processes. Camacho and Pumari are serving pre-trial detention for the coup d’état I case, pending the Constitutional Court’s definition of the validity of the terrorism charge. According to opposition organizations, there are currently more than 300 political prisoners in Bolivia.
The TSJ document warns that, if after verification it is confirmed that the deadlines for pre-trial detention have been exceeded, the judges must order what corresponds in law, which opens the possibility of releases.
Áñez reacted with optimism through her social media.
“Después de cuatro años y medio, el TSJ instruye actuar en derecho. No es un regalo, es un derecho que llega tarde, pero con esperanza para todos los bolivianos”,
escribió.
The TSJ’s instruction comes at a key political moment: one day after the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) and the Free Alliance managed to advance to the second round in the general elections, leaving the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) out of the competition.
