Former Bolivia interim president Jeanine Añez was taken to hospital on Wednesday (17) after being ill in prison, prison officials said.
On charges of conspiracy, sedition and terrorism in the process that led to Evo Morales’ resignation in November 2019, and in the interim government that followed, Añez was arrested on Saturday (13). Two days later, the court ordered four months of preventive detention.
Karina Figueroa, governor of La Paz Women’s Prison, said Añez suffered from high blood pressure. “Doctors will keep us informed of the situation,” he said in an interview with Rádio Éxito, without giving details.
Mexico’s foreign ministry on Wednesday criticized the Organization of American States (OAS) for what it called “interference in the internal affairs of Bolivia”, referring to the arrest of Añez.
The speech was a reaction to a statement from the agency, released earlier on Wednesday. The text calls for “reliable and impartial judgments” and emphasizes what it called the aggravation of political interference and corruption in the Bolivian justice system.
Añez was president of Bolivia between November 2019 and November 2020. She took power following the resignation of Evo, in a process seen as a coup by supporters of the left leader because of the pressure from the armed forces for a change of government and for the heterodox interpretation of the laws made by the former senator to assume the presidency.
She left the Bolivian government after the electoral victory of Luis Arce, Evo’s ally. Her arrest took place on Saturday (13), after being found by police officers hidden in a box bed.
The complaint against the ex-president was presented by deputies and ex-deputies linked to the MAS (Movement for Socialism), party of Evo and Arce. In the process, the prosecution accuses the high government of Añez of having caused more than 30 deaths in the repression of demonstrations after the departure of the indigenous leader.
The penalties for the crimes described range from 5 to 20 years in prison. Añez says his arrest is illegal and constitutes an act of persecution and that the government “accuses him of integrating a coup that never took place.”
The arrest warrant also concerns former ministers Arturo Murillo (government), Luis Fernando López (defense), Yerko Núñez (presidency), Álvaro Coimbra (justice) and Rodrígo Guzmán (energy) – the latter two have also been arrested.