LA PAZ | Four new charges were accepted Tuesday by the courts against Jeanine Añez, the former interim president of Bolivia, in preventive detention and prosecuted for an alleged coup against her predecessor Evo Morales.
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The new charges, presented by the Ministry of Justice on behalf of the state, were accepted by the Bolivian prosecution.
The former conservative interim president was arrested on March 14 following a complaint for “sedition”, “terrorism” and “conspiracy” filed by a former member of the Movement for Socialism (MAS), Evo’s party Morales. She is in preventive detention in a prison in La Paz for a period of six months.
Two of his former ministers have also been arrested, and arrest warrants have been issued against several other figures in the current opposition.
Ms. Añez is accused of participating in a 2019 coup against the socialist president. Then second vice-president of the Senate, she was sworn in as interim president two days after the resignation of Mr. Morales.
“Decisions contrary to the Constitution”
Under the new charges against her on Tuesday, which relate to her activity as interim head of state, she is accused of having signed “decisions contrary to the Constitution and the laws” as well as others. failures related in particular to the management of the Covid-19 epidemic in Bolivia.
Separately, Añez said on Tuesday that the authorities were putting her life in danger by refusing to transfer her to a medical facility for treatment for a problem of hypertension.
“I don’t trust the government doctors,” she wrote in a letter made public. “They are part of a system of abuse and repression and they have already shown that they are willing to put my life in danger, by injecting me with a high-risk drug without precautions or prior studies, for the sole purpose of keep me in their jails ”, accused Ms. Añez, without giving details of the treatment she would have received.
“I have already been taken away my freedom and now my health is being compromised,” she said. When arrested, she said she was a victim of “political persecution”.
A representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bolivia went to the prison where Ms. Añez is staying at the end of last week to check her conditions of detention. She has yet to release her findings.
In November 2019, Mr. Morales was forced to resign by an uprising after being proclaimed the winner of the presidential election where he was running for a fourth term but accused of fraud by the opposition.
After a campaign of demonstrations during which at least 35 people were killed, Mr. Morales, released by the police and the army, resigned and took refuge in Mexico and then in Argentina.
He returned to Bolivia after the victory in the presidential election of October 2020 of his dolphin Luis Arce, who succeeded Ms. Añez.