Former Bolivian interim president Jeanine Áñez, jailed for an alleged coup in 2019 against former President Evo Morales, was transferred to another women’s prison in La Paz on Saturday morning, according to the detainee and confirmed by authorities.
“They took me out and told me I was going to the Southern Clinic,” the former president told the press when he arrived at the women’s prison in Miraflores, where he will continue to serve the four months of pretrial detention ordered against her in while the indictment.
Añez was transferred to an ambulance at that prison, after two days of health problems.
The General Directorate of the Penitentiary Regime reported in a statement that the change of the Miraflores Women’s Penitentiary Center was made because that unit “has medical facilities, equipment and medical staff in accordance with the specific and recommended treatment requested by the detainee.
On Friday afternoon, three judges in La Paz ordered Añez’s “judicial exit” to a clinic for his medical evaluation by cardiologists. However, shortly afterwards, another judge revoked this authorization, ordering it to be treated by the medical staff of the Institute of Forensic Research.
Añez’s daughter, Carolina Ribera, had asked that her mother be transferred to a medical center to treat her for “systemic hypertension.” According to her, the penitentiary authorities did not respect the court decision by refusing “all medical care” to her mother.
In a video posted on the social network Twitter, Ribera stressed that the refusal to transfer Áñez to a medical center instead of the new prison is an “attempt at life” of the former interim president.
“This is an abuse, an injustice and attacking the life of my mother, who is in urgent need of medical care,” said Áñez’s daughter.
The former interim president entered a women’s prison in La Paz last Sunday, after being arrested the day before in Trinidad, the capital of the Amazon department in Beni (northeast), in a police operation.
His former justice and energy ministers have also been detained and arrest warrants are being issued against other collaborators.
A new appeal hearing on these precautionary detentions is scheduled for this Saturday morning.
On Añez, who exercised power from November 2019 to November 2020, he weighs a complaint for sedition, terrorism and conspiracy filed by former member of the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS), Lidia Patty.
The complaint refers to the events that led to Morales’ resignation from the presidency in November 2019, after 14 years in office.
The left-wing leader left his post following violent protests by opponents, who accused Morales of fraudulently winning the October 2019 presidential election, in which he called for a fourth term.