Bolivia

Jeanine Áñez became interim president of Bolivia in November 2019 after Evo Morales resigned amid electoral fraud allegations and after the armed forces asked him to step down. The Morales administration had created a hostile environment for human rights defenders and promoted judicial changes that posed a serious threat to the rule of law. President Áñez has tried to shield military personnel from accountability for abuses and assumed powers that threaten free expression. Investigations into 35 killings during protests in 2019, the majority of them in the context of army and police operations, have yet to identify suspects in most cases.