Bolivia Revokes Military Promotions Decreed by Jeanine Añez

TCP declares unconstitutional Áñez's decree that promoted generals and admirals in the armed forces.

Published 2 April 2022

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The Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP) of Bolivia revoked decrees of military promotions signed by former "de facto" president Jeanine Añez.

A resolution published on Thursday by the Bolivian Plurinational Constitutional Court (TCP) declared "unconstitutional" two supreme decrees approved during the mandate of Añez, which established the direct promotion of generals and admirals of the country's Armed Forces.

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The note, reproaches that Añez and her cabinet at the time, by subscribing the referred decrees, "incurred in the exercise of a non-existent power, which was not assigned to them neither by the Supreme Norm [Constitution] nor the laws".

"It is concluded that the defendant authorities 'Transitory President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia [Áñez]' and the 'Council of Ministers' that subscribed the DS 4221, decreed in an unprecedented way the imposition of ranks and delivery of Command Batons, Sabers and Swords to the military personnel of the Armed Forces, at the expense of the ratification by the Chamber of Senators", the document indicates.

Demonstrators call for a 30-year sentence against interim Bolivian president Jeanine Áñez on the brief first day of her trial for unlawfully taking power in 2019. https://t.co/iFs9LwuGLD
— Carwil Bjork-James (@CarwilBJ) March 28, 2022

This complaint was filed before the TCP by the then head of the Senate, Eva Copa, and a group of legislators of the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) against the authorities of the transitional government.

Copa, in her allegation, denounces that Áñez had arranged military promotions with an "illegal" norm, approving by decree promotions that should only be arranged by a resolution of the Senate, which has the rank of law.

"This [de facto] government has superimposed a supreme decree on a law, which messes up the legal life in a democratic system; what this causes is a terrible aggravation of the legal and judicial situation that Mrs. Áñez is going through", pointed out a Bolivian constitutional lawyer, Franklin Gutiérrez.

The former president is facing an ordinary trial for the coup d'état she led in 2019 against the democratically-elected president of the country, Evo Morales. Áñez served last March 15 a year of preventive imprisonment for her illegal measures and governmental crimes.