Former presidents demand the release of Jeanine Áñez after her suicide attempt in a Bolivian prison

Former presidents, local authorities and the defense of Jeanine ñez interviewed this Saturday “to defend oneself in freedom” after the injuries generated by the former interim president of Bolivia in preventive detention.

Former President Carlos Mesa and leader of the Citizen Community (CC), the main opposition force in Bolivia, called for the “end of the political imprisonment” of Jeanine Áñez and for her to be able to defend herself “in freedom”.

Mesa expressed via Twitter that the government’s explanations for Áñez’s state of health “are neither serious nor credible” and that the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) can “check their situation”.

In the same way former president Jorge Quiroga He pleaded for Áñez to “defend himself in complete freedom, that his life and integrity be respected” and called for “humanity” the Bolivian president, Luis Arce.

For its part, the governor of Santa Cruz, the opponent Luis Fernando Camacho, He argued that the Arce government “and its policy of revenge crosses all bounds” and that they “impair” Áñez’s health with “inhuman behavior”.

The Minister of Government (Interior), Eduardo del Castillo, indicated that Áñez tried to “generate self-harm” in the early hours of Saturday and that he has a few “scratches” on one of his arms, but is “stable”.

Norka Cuéllar, one of Áñez’s lawyers, asked on behalf of the family that the former interim president be able to defend herself in full freedom and that she remain in house arrest. “What happened today is a request for help from the former president”, Cuéllar told the media after visiting Áñez in prison.

Likewise, Jorge Valda, another of Áñez’s lawyers, expressed in a video that the act of the former president, who tried to “commit suicide”, is “a message of help, of relief”, and asked for the opportunity to “save his life” by defending himself in complete freedom.

Another of his defenders, Luis Guillén, assured that This desperate measure is due to “abuse of which the former president is the victim”.

The lawyer pointed out that during the last five months of detention, the prison regime administered drugs in the wrong way, in addition to drugs that are counterproductive to your health, which could have caused a framework of depression and paranoia which would have led her to make the decision to commit suicide. “Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in the medical council and I heard that the prison regime had misapplied the drugs that would have been prescribed to the ex-president, including drugs that would be counterproductive for his health and would generate unwanted effects such as high depression or even paranoia syndrome, ”he said.

A WATCH

Áñez’s children entered Miraflores prison in La Paz, where they are being held in pre-trial detention for the so-called “coup” case.

Then the president of the Permanent Human Rights Assembly of Bolivia, Amparo Carvajal, arrived at the prison door to see the former president and keep watch until they let her see her.

He also approached the prison the mayor of La Paz, Iván Arias, who was minister in the Áñez government, to express their solidarity and to be treated with “fairness”.

Áñez has been detained for more than five months after being charged with crimes such as terrorism, sedition and conspiracy in the so-called “coup” case due to events during the political and social crisis of 2019.

On Friday, the prosecutor’s office made an accusatory demand against ñez to initiate a trial on the responsibilities of the died in two regions during the 2019 crisis, after the failed elections that year. These elections were called off in the middle of electoral fraud complaints in favor of then-president Evo Morales, who for his part claims to have been the victim of a “coup”.

Opposition groups to Luis Arce’s government sent letters to international organizations to respect ñez’s human rights, who suffers from high blood pressure and depressive anxiety syndrome.

This Saturday, three former presidents signed a letter that urgently calls on the Judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to “Preserving” Áñez’s life.

With information from EFE

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