10 October 2021
Longaric and Aparicio: IACHR’s rejection of Añez’s request opens the way for more violations in Bolivia
Former Foreign Minister Karen Longaric and former Bolivian Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Jaime Aparicio, have harshly criticized the recent rejection of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to the request made by former President Jeanine Añez to be granted precautionary measures in that instance and said that the IACHR puts its political affinities before its obligations with the Inter-American System.
In a statement released this Sunday, Longaric and Aparicio warned that the IACHR’s rejection of the former President’s request –which they describe as unfair and guided by “political and personal interests, oblique and deviant”– “opens the way for more violations of human and political rights in Bolivia.”
At the same time, they warn that this rejection will have serious consequences in the country because, in their opinion, it leaves many citizens not trusting national justice and who saw in that high court a hope of obtaining justice in their possible demands.
“The IACHR’s rejection of precautionary measures in favor of the former constitutional President of Bolivia, Jeanine Añez, means that the commissioners of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) have made a political decision rather than a legal one, putting their ideological affinities before their obligation to ensure the protection of human rights within the framework of the Inter-American System,” they said in the document.
“This decision leaves many Bolivian citizens helpless who cannot trust national justice and who saw the Inter-American Human Rights System as one of the last guarantors of democracy and the rule of law in the country. With this, the IACHR sets a dangerous precedent in the region. It fails in its role as guardian of human rights and gives a blow to the credibility of the Inter-American System, which has been so important in the history of the continent and which has cost so much to build,” they added.
In a ruling that has been especially criticized by opposition sectors in the country and welcomed by the Government, last week the IACHR decided to reject the request for precautionary measures presented by former President Añez and closed her case, as confirmed at that time by the Executive Secretary of that organization, Tania Reneaum Panszi.
The IACHR, according to Reneaum Panszi’s letter, urged the Bolivian State to guarantee, in favor of the former President, “decent conditions of detention, in compliance with the minimum inter-American standards on the matter, providing adequate, specialized and continuous physical and mental medical care and/or treatment, either inside or outside the penitentiary, seeking, as far as possible, consensus with the trusted doctors of the proposed beneficiary and their informed consent.”
In their statement this Sunday, the former diplomatic authorities said that from that letter it can be interpreted that the IACHR assumed as true all the arguments presented by the Government before that instance, ignoring even the warnings of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) “on the lack of independence of the Judicial Power in the country and on the total control that the Executive [Power] has over judges and prosecutors.”
“The Commission should have minimally considered the lack of independence of the Bolivian Judicial Power, the flagrant abuse of the figure of preventive detention in Bolivia verified by the GIEI itself, and the consequent procedural and prison abuses against Jeanine Añez, which under international standards constitute acts of torture and degrading treatment,” they say.
“It is also clear that the IACHR does not consider that the evidence and arguments presented in favor of former President Añez show that her physical integrity is at immediate, serious, and irreparable risk. For the IACHR, the daily psychological and physical pressure suffered by Jeanine Añez, either due to the aggressive protests of inmates against her in prison, the inexplicable transfer from one prison to another, the lack of quality medical care, the refusal to transfer her to a hospital, the prohibition of visits, or the constant humiliations that have led her to attempt suicide, do not pose a serious and irreparable risk to the physical integrity of Jeanine Añez,” they add.
But, in addition, Longaric and Aparicio say that by exhorting the former President “to cooperate in a positive way with the State in the implementation of the measures in [her] favor,” the IACHR humiliates the former President because “it exhorts her to be kind to her oppressor.”
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