Former Bolivian President Áñez is transferred to another prison

The former temporary president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, was transferred early this Saturday to another prison and not to a clinic, as a judge had previously authorized this Friday.

Áñez was taken by surprise in an ambulance under strong security measures from the Obrajes Feminine Orientation Center, where she has been detained since last Monday, to the Miraflores jail.

“They took me out telling me that I was going to the South Clinic,” Áñez told the media upon arrival at her new destination, the Miraflores prison.

A judge decided on Friday that the former temporary president be taken to a clinic to be assessed and treated for hypertension problems, after Áñez pointed out in the virtual hearing with a weak voice that she was in the Obrajes prison with oxygen, with pressure high.

Until late at night her daughter Carolina Ribera and her lawyer Norka Cuéllar had waited in the Obrajes prison for the judge’s order to take effect, but they themselves indicated that there was no response from the authorities of that prison.

In addition, the Attorney General’s Office determined that “IDIF (Forensic Research Institute) personnel” had to previously “verify the state of health” of Áñez before proceeding with the transfer.

The lawyer told Efe that she tried to speak with the governor of the Obrajes prison, but that “they informed her that she was also ill with high blood pressure and that she was being treated in the prison infirmary,” then she tried to speak with the director of prison department when she saw him arrive at the place and he told her “that he was very busy.”

On Friday night Áñez posted this message on her Twitter account: “the justice ordered that the former president be transferred to a clinic due to her delicate state of health. But the government has refused to comply with that court order. Once again we are facing an abuse of the government, against the most elementary human rights ”.

“Viciousness and cruelty of @LuchoXBolivia against @JeanineAnez. When justice orders that she be taken to a clinic, they force another judge to deny the transfer. In the early morning they cheat on her and change her jail for the kidnapping. Silences from @CIDH, @mbachelet and UE are accomplices of this torture ”, wrote the former president Jorge Quiroga this Saturday on his Twitter account, who has started an international crusade for this case.

Áñez was sent to jail after she was apprehended last Saturday in the morning, in the Amazonian department of Beni, and after an indictment hearing, her arrest for four months was ordered preventively while the investigation is being carried out in the case called “coup”, due to the social and political crisis of 2019 that led to the resignation of the Presidency of Evo Morales.

Along with Áñez, her former interim ministers Álvaro Coímbra, of Justice and Rodrigo Guzmán, of Energy, are also detained for the same period in the San Pedro prison in La Paz.

Thousands of people have marched this week for and against these arrests, which the Bolivian opposition considers to be “unjust” and that it is a “political persecution”, while the ruling party indicates that “justice” is being done.