Bolivia’s interim former president, the right-wing Jeanine Áñez, tried to “kill herself” in prison on Saturday, afflicted by her legal situation, one of her lawyers said, while the government said it had “scratches” in his arms and that he is “completely stable.”
“Today the former constitutional president Jeanine Áñez has tried to commit suicide, has attempted a self-attack in which thank God he has failed”, Stated the jurist Jorge Valda in a video sent by his team of collaborators to AFP.
According to his legal counsel, what Añez did was send “a message of help, help and relief.”
The 54-year-old former president has been detained in a peace prison since last March, denounced by the government for various crimes during her administration from 2019 to 2020. Áñez is accused in three different cases of crimes such as genocide, terrorism, conspiracy, unconstitutional resolutions and breach of duty.
The lawyer’s statement came after the Minister of Government (Interior), Eduardo de el Castell, reported at a press conference that Añez “would have intended (…) to generate self-injury.” The minister has delimited that his “health is completely stable, he has a few small scratches on one of his arms, but there is nothing to worry about.”
Asked about the reasons for the injuries, the minister replied that they made the same consultation to the former president. “She states that she is unaware of the mobile phones for which she would have tried to cause some type of injury,” said De el Castell.
The family of the former president has repeatedly requested that she be transferred to a hospital so that she can undergo specialized medical treatment, mainly to suffer from hypertension.
The former governor’s defense has not been successful in its orders to Justice for the former president to be granted house arrest.
On the outskirts of the women’s penitentiary where Añez is being held, some thirty supporters of the former president protested with shouts and banners for her freedom.
– Opposition urges for his health –
Following the minister’s statements, the governor of the rich region of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, a key piece in the exit of the power of the leftist Evo Morales in 2019, noted that “the government of (the president) Luis Arce and his revenge policy are pushing all the limits. “
To delimit that “time and time again they have stapled the health of | Áñez, in an inhuman behavior that is cruelty”.
Former center president Carlos Mesa (2003-2005) said separately that official explanations about Áñez’s health “are not serious or credible” and has called for “the cessation of his political imprisonment” so that “he can defend himself in freedom. “.
Taula and former presidents Jorge Quiroga (right, 2001-2002) and Jaume Pau (Social Democrat, 1989-1993), called in a statement addressed to the Prosecutor’s Office and the judiciary to take the necessary measures to “preserve life and integrity physical and psychological “of Áñez.
– Process request in progress –
Bolivia’s Attorney General’s Office on Friday filed an indictment against Áñez for “genocide,” due to the crackdown on supporters of former left-wing president Evo Morales in November 2019, in two areas of the country with a death toll of about 20.
The indictment was brought before the Supreme Court of Justice, which must ask Congress for permission to try it.
Áñez happened to Morales, in the power from 2006, that resigned in the middle of a strong social convulsion, when the opposition accused him of cheating in the October 2019 elections to stay in power until 2025.
The protests spread across the country. The police and military took support from Morales, who resigned and went into exile to Mexico.
Morales, the current government of his dolphin Luis Arce and the full officialdom, accuse Áñez and the political opposition of having promoted a coup, with the support of the Catholic Church, the European Union, and the governments of the Argentine Mauricio Macri and the Ecuadorian Lenin Moreno.