LA PAZ – Jailed former Bolivian president Jeanine Anez was yesterday in “stable” condition after she tried to kill herself when prosecutors charged her with “genocide” over protesters’ deaths in 2019, said an official.
Anez, 54, made an attempt on her life due to “severe depression” because of her prolonged imprisonment, said her daughter Carolina Ribera.
“We can say, without a doubt, that her health is stable,” Juan Carlos Limpias, prisons director, told reporters.
“At the moment, she is with her family in the penitentiary. The family will be an important factor to help improve her state of mind.”
Bolivian officials earlier announced that Anez tried to harm herself, with Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo saying on Saturday that she suffered only “scratches” on her arm, and is in stable condition.
The opposition deplored the government’s treatment of Anez and called for her release.
Former centrist president Carlos Mesa said official explanations of her injury are “not serious”, and demanded an end to her “political jailing”.
Anez’s family have repeatedly asked the government to transfer her to a hospital for treatment of hypertension and other conditions.
The conservative came to power in November 2019 after then president Evo Morales resigned and fled the country following weeks of violent protests over his controversial re-election to an unconstitutional fourth term.
The specific accusation against Anez relates to two incidents in November 2019, in which a total of 22 people died.
Attorney-General Juan Lanchipa on Friday said he has presented documents against her in which the incidents are “provisionally classified as genocide, serious and minor injury, and injury followed by death”.
After Morales resigned, Anez, as the most senior parliamentarian left, was sworn in as interim president, but her political opponents denounced this as a coup.
Under her administration, Bolivia held peaceful, transparent elections in October last year that Morales’ leftist protege Luis Arce won in a landslide.
Arce subsequently vowed to pursue those he accused of staging a coup.
Anez, arrested in March on accusations of leading a coup, also faces charges of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy.
The opposition has decried the lack of separation of powers in the country, saying the courts, electoral body and public prosecutor’s office are all loyal to Arce. – AFP, August 23, 2021
