Jailed Bolivian ex-president Jeanine Anez remained in “stable” condition Sunday after prosecutors charged her with “genocide” over the deaths of 2019 protestors, according to an official. Anez, 54, committed herself as a result of “extreme sadness” brought on by her extended imprisonment, according to her daughter, Carolina Ribera.
“We can declare without a doubt that her health is stable,” prisons director Juan Carlos Limpias told reporters. “She is currently in the penitentiary with her family. Her family will play a vital role in assisting her in improving her mental condition “Added he.
Anez tried to kill herself, according to Bolivian officials, with Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo stating she merely received “scratches” on her arm early Saturday and is in stable condition. The government’s treatment of Anez was condemned by the opposition, who demanded her release. Carlos Mesa, a former centrist president, claimed the official justifications for her injury were “not serious” and called an end to her “political incarceration.” Anez’s family has sought the authorities on several occasions to move her to a hospital for treatment of hypertension and other ailments.
After weeks of violent protests over his dubious re-election to an unlawful fourth term, then-president Evo Morales resigned and fled the country in November 2019, hardline Anez took power. The specific charge leveled against Anez relates to two occurrences that occurred in November 2019 and resulted in the deaths of a total of 22 persons. Attorney General Juan Lanchipa said on Friday that he had filed documentation against her that “provisionally defined the acts as genocide, major and minor injury, and injury followed by death.”
After Morales resigned, Anez was inaugurated in as interim president as the most senior parliamentarian on the left, but her political opponents criticized the move as a coup. Bolivia held calm, transparent elections in October 2020 under Anez’s leadership, in which Morales’ Marxist disciple Luis Arce won a landslide victory. Following that, Arce pledged to go after individuals he suspected of organizing a coup. Anez, who was arrested in March on suspicions of plotting a coup, also faces terrorism, sedition, and conspiracy charges. Bolivia’s opposition has criticized the country’s lack of separation of powers, claiming that the country’s judiciary, electoral commission, and public prosecutor’s office are all loyal to socialist President Evo Morales Arce.
