Chilean court upholds acquittal of bishop accused of covering up teen’s disappearance

La Paz, Bolivia, Mar 17, 2021 / 10:04 am (CNA).- The Bolivian Bishops’ Conference has denounced the arrest of the former interim president of the country, Jeanine Áñez, on charges of terrorism, sedition, and conspiracy, and called on the new government to “desist from total control of power, revenge and persecution.”

Áñez, the vice-president of the Senate, became interim president following the constitutional order of succession to the presidency when Evo Morales, then-president of Bolivia, fled the country in November 2019 after weeks of protest regarding a disputed election.

According to the electoral commission Morales won on the October 2019 election’s first round, but the opposition claimed fraud. The Organization of American States said Nov. 10, 2019 that there was “clear manipulation” in the election, and that it was statistically improbable that Morales had won by the margin needed to avoid a runoff.

Within hours of the OAS report, Morales resigned, after being encouraged to do so by the head of the Bolivian armed forces. He fled to Mexico, receiving asylum there, and then in Argentina.

Áñez served as interim president for one year until new presidential elections were held in which Luis Arce, a member of the Movement for Socialism, won the presidency.

During Áñez’s administration, the political crisis worsened and, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the country was plunged into an economic crisis.

Morales returned to the country Nov. 11, 2020, the first day of the Arce administration, and Áñez was arrested March 12 by order of the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office.

Along with Áñez, the former interim Minister of Energy, Álvaro Guzmán Collao, and the former temporary Minister of Justice, Álvaro Coímbra Cornejo, were arrested. There is also an arrest warrant out for other members of the Áñez administration, military leaders, and police chiefs.

Considered a flight risk, the former interim president will spend four months in preventive detention in the Obrajes women’s prison awaiting trial. She is accused of terrorism, sedition, and conspiracy, which allegedly led to the removal of Morales from power.

The Bolivian Bishops’ Conference stated March 13 that “the arrest and prosecution” of Áñez, “without taking into account minimum constitutional guarantees, not even the presumption of innocence, confirms the course of action that, unfortunately, we have seen in the judicial system, which lets some people go unpunished and criminalizes others, depending on the government in power at any given time.”

According to the New York Times, “both Mr. Morales and Ms. Añez used the judiciary to go after their critics.”

The bishops demanded “the immediate release of those arrested” in order to uphold “internationally recognized fundamental rights.”

“We cannot keep silent in the face of the increasing political persecution, which recalls sad moments in history, and which does not build up trust, peace and reconciliation among all Bolivians. We cannot remain passive while citizens who have served Bolivia, with their limitations, in difficult moments in its history and sought ways to restore peace, are being persecuted,” the bishops said.

The conference warned, “democracy only exists if an independent judicial system is respected and is not subjected to the political interests of the government in power. Democracy is respect for the truth. You cannot create a false account of history, inventing the truth and manipulating the conscience of Bolivians.”

The conference urged “the government authorities to work for progress in Bolivia, for justice, truth and reconciliation among all Bolivians.”

“The politics of revenge and rancor and a judicial system dependent on those in power, do not create trust in the people and will harm us all, sooner or later.”

“We call on everyone to reflect and help our people to look to the future with hope in achieving a country of reconciliation and peace for all Bolivians and we ask the officials of the Plurinational State to desist from total control of power, from revenge and persecution,” the bishops’ statement concluded.

Bishop Eugenio Coter, Vicar Apostolic of Pando, stated that the situation is troubling “because the rights of a person, who may have made mistakes, but who was recognized by the Bolivian congress itself as president, are being trampled on.”

“The current president himself (Luis Arce) recognized that (Áñez) was president in constitutional succession.”

“It’s a lack of respect for our intelligence, it’s a lack of honesty in the face of history, it is a lack of consistency in the face of their own words and of the institutions that they themselves (controlled) because they were the ones who accepted the resignation of the previous president (Morales),” Bishop Coter pointed out.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 13, 2022 / 14:24 pm (CNA).
Saying it “stands firmly” in support of legalized abortion, a Washington, D.C. restaurant has canceled a pro-life group’s booking for its annual “March for Life Break… […]

Ottawa, Canada, Mar 12, 2021 / 05:18 pm (CNA).- Canada’s vulnerable populations are at risk due to Bill C-7’s expansion of euthanasia and assisted suicide to those with disabling, non-terminal conditions including mental illness, a member of the Canadian parliament has said.

An amended version of Bill C-7 passed the Canadian House of Commons March 11 by a vote of 180-149. Should the bill be approved by the Senate, which is likely, Canada’s euthanasia and assisted suicide laws will become some of the most permissible in the world.

“Bill C-7 is legislation that was a purported response to a Quebec superior court decision called ‘Truchon'”, Conservative MP Michael Cooper told CNA March 12. 

“In the Truchon decision, the judge determined that the ‘reasonably foreseeable’ criteria–that death must be reasonably foreseeable in order to qualify for medical assistance in dying–contravened Canada’s charter of rights and freedoms,” he explained.

In the case, Jean Truchon, a Quebec man who had cerebral palsy, filed suit after his request to end his life was denied as his condition was not terminal.

A judge ruled that Truchon and his co-plaintiff Nicole Gladu, who has post-polio syndrome, could not be denied a euthanasia or assisted suicide if they wished to end their lives, and that MAiD should be available to Canadians without terminal conditions.

Truchon received MAiD in April 2020. Gladu is still alive.

Cooper told CNA that “the normal course of action” following a court’s action such as the Truchon decision, “would have been the attorney general to have appealed the decision.”

“This, after all, was a lower court decision of one judge that was not binding on any courts in any other provinces. Indeed, it’s not binding on any upper court in the province of Quebec,” he said. Given that the Truchon decision was made “a mere three and a half years” following the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada, Cooper believes the attorney general should have appealed the decision.

“It’s the responsibility of the attorney general to defend the laws passed by parliament,” said Cooper. “And that would’ve meant appealing the decision, taking a decision if necessary all the way to the Supreme Court. That very least would have provided clarity in the law.”

Instead, the Canadian federal government announced that the decision would not be appealed, and new laws will take effect in Quebec in April. Parliament was instructed to write a law codifying the decision. Bill C-7 was introduced in parliament Feb. 23, 2020.

Initially, the bill would “remove the requirement for a person’s natural death to be reasonably foreseeable in order to be eligible” for euthanasia or assisted suicide and would “introduce a two-track approach to procedural safeguards” depending on if a person’s natural death is “reasonably foreseeable.”

The Senate, which has the ability to propose amendments to legislation, received the bill after it passed on a second reading in the House of Commons. The Senate introduced “radical” amendments to the bill, including one where euthanasia or assisted suicide would be permitted for people with mental illness as the sole underlying cause for ending their lives.

That amendment passed.

“The government has effectively rewritten the bill to something far more expansive than it was a year ago,” said Cooper.

Cooper was critical of the speed in which the legislation moved with the new amendments.
“I mean, this is a case where the government has proceeded with this radical expansion [of MAiD] absent a meaningful parliamentary study, absent a consensus amongst professionals, amongst experts and, in the face of leading mental health professionals who say the persons suffering from mental illness will prematurely end their lives,” he said. 

“It’s the height of recklessness on the part of the government,” said Cooper.

Once the bill has received Royal Assent, it will become law. Cooper said this is likely to happen before the end of the month, as a stay issued by the Quebec court will expire March 26.

Disability activists in Canada have been among the most vocally opposed to the passage of Bill C-7 and the expansion of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Over 120 disability groups have spoken out against the bill, saying that the bill amounts to coercion for people with disabilities to end their lives.

Disability Filibuster, an organization of Canadians with disabilities and their allies who are opposed to Bill C-7, noted that the day the bill was passed–March 11, 2021–was also the tenth anniversary of Canada ratifying the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

“Bill C-7 expands Medical Assistance in Dying beyond those who are actually dying, but only for persons with a disabling medical condition,” said Disability Filibuster’s website.

“The Bill, and its ableist subtext have already been harmful and traumatizing for a great many disabled people in Canada.”

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