Former Bolivia interim president Jeanine Áñez tried to injure herself in the cell where she is being held and ended up with “scratches” on her arm, but her health is stable, said on Saturday ( 21 years old) a government minister Luis Arce.
“I regret to inform the Bolivian people that Ms. Jeanine Áñez attempted to self-harm this morning,” Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo said in an interview.
According to him, Añez’s health is “completely stable”. “She has a few small scratches on one of her arms, there is nothing to worry about,” he said.
The former president’s lawyer, Norka Cuéllar, called the act a request for help from the former president. She told Reuters that Áñez had three cuts on his left wrist.
When asked about the cause of the injuries, Castillo said the same question was asked of the former president, jailed since March on charges of conspiracy, sedition and terrorism. This week, she received a new charge from the country’s attorney general for genocide and other crimes.
“She said she didn’t know what she would have tried to generate some kind of injury with,” Castillo said, insisting the injuries are “superficial”.
Opponent to former President Evo Morales, ñez was the second vice president of the Senate and was proclaimed interim president after resigning in November 2019 due to a controversial interpretation of the Constitution. She left power in November last year, following the election of Arce, an Evo ally, and was arrested last March.
Evo and the government of his ally Arce accuse the opposition of carrying out a coup d’état with the support of the Church, the European Union and the governments of Argentinian Mauricio Macri and Ecuadorian Lenín Moreno .
Áñez’s family have repeatedly requested that she be transferred to a hospital, where she can receive specialized medical treatment, mainly suffering from high blood pressure. She came to be sick, had exams and needed medical treatment last Wednesday included.
The defense of the former governor had been rejected by the courts which asked Añez to be under house arrest.
Opposition politicians criticized the government. Santa Cruz Governor Luis Fernando Camacho, a key player in Evo’s fall in 2019, said Arce had a policy of revenge. “It pushes all boundaries and has repeatedly affected Jeanine Áñez’s health, in inhuman and cruel behavior,” he said.
Former President Carlos Mesa (2003-2005) declared that the official explanations for Jeanine Áñez’s state of health “are neither serious nor credible” and called for the revocation of his arrest, which he described as political. .
Mesa and former Presidents Jorge Quiroga (2001-2002) and Jaime Paz (1989-1993) sent a statement to the Bolivian Attorney General and the judiciary, asking them to take the necessary measures to “preserve life and physical integrity. and psychological ”by Jeanine ñez.
On Friday (20), the Bolivian Attorney General filed an indictment against the former interim president for genocide and other crimes due to the deaths of around 20 anti-government protesters in 2019.
The indictment has been referred to the Supreme Court of Justice, which must seek permission from Congress to try it.