Rally Santa Cruz Bolivia
© Reuters/Lesly MoyanoDemonstrators attend a rally in Santa Cruz to protest against the detention of former interim President Jeanine Anez.
Huge crowds supporting Bolivia's ex-president, Jeanine Anez, took to the streets across the country late on Monday to protest her arrest for being involved in a 2019 coup that deposed long-time leader Evo Morales.

The largest group gathered in the country's financial capital, Santa Cruz, where the attendance was estimated at some 40,000.

One of the demonstrators told RT's Ruptly video agency:
"We are asking for the same justice for everyone. Just as they judge the transitional government [on Anez] that was constitutionally put in place, we demand that the government of Evo Morales and all his henchmen also go to jail."
A few hours before the rallies, Anez was transferred to a prison in La Paz. The conservative politician, who ruled Bolivia as interim president for a year, and several of her associates were detained during the weekend on accusations of sedition, terrorism and conspiracy over their coming to power in November 2019.

At the time, Morales was forced to flee the country amid a violent uprising, which was triggered by accusations of election fraud that later turned out to be largely baseless. The Anez government harshly suppressed the counter-protests, even giving the military temporary immunity from prosecution over its actions during the demonstrations.

Morales, who led Bolivia for 13 years, has maintained strong public support in the Latin American state, with his leftist Movement for Socialism (MAS) party winning the general election last November and new president Luis Arce vowing to bring the coup plotters to justice.

Anez herself has denied any wrongdoing or even that there was a coup in the country, calling her arrest "abuse and political persecution" on the part of the new authorities.