Government of Bolivia rejects interference from the US and Brazil

The Bolivian government asked the United States and Brazil on Thursday to avoid “interference” in the Andean country’s political crisis after the arrest of former interim president Jeanine Áñez, which has increased the climate of tension in the country.

Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta met the day before with Brazilian Ambassador Octavio Henrique Dias and with the United States Charge d’Affaires, Charisse Phillips, to “remind them of their duty to refrain from intervening in the internal affairs of other States,” the Foreign Ministry said in a release.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro called it “unreasonable” that Áñez is accused of a “coup,” while the deputy spokesperson for the State Department, Jalina Porter, said that “the United States is following with concern” the situation in Bolivia.

The Bolivian government has also rejected criticism from the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro.

The arrests of Áñez and of two former ministers accused of sedition, conspiracy and terrorism on Tuesday motivated opposition marches in several cities that brought to mind the massive protests of 2019 against then-President Evo Morales, whom they accused of mounting a fraud to be reelected, which led to in a social outbreak with 36 deaths and the subsequent resignation of the president.

Supporters and family members claimed on Thursday that Áñez be transferred to a medical center after suffering decompensation in prison due to hypertension.

On the same Thursday afternoon, the president of the Bolivian Human Rights Assembly, Amparo Carvajal, visited the former president in jail and assured that she is going through a period of depression and that she has stopped eating.

Prison authorities insist that Áñez’s transfer to a clinic is not necessary and they assured that his health is stable.

The leftist president Luis Arce had reduced his public appearances and had not commented on the matter, but hours later he posted on Twitter that he met virtually with the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, with whom he analyzed “the process of recovery of democracy in Bolivia and the situation of the pandemic worldwide”.

“In the conversation, the Secretary General stressed the need to respect human rights and due process, which constitute a fundamental basis for the consolidation of democracy,” reported by the spokesman for the General Secretariat, Stéphane Dujarric.

Four days ago, Guterres called on Bolivian politicians to “consolidate peace and called for” due process “after Áñez’s arrest.

The conflict between the government and the opposition triggered other conflicts such as that of the coca growers, who on Thursday cut off a vital route in La Paz due to an internal dispute over control of the legal coca trade.

Doctors have also returned to the streets to reject a recent law that, according to health workers, penalizes strikers and allows foreign medical personnel to enter the country.

These conflicts could complicate the situation for the government amid a health crisis, slow vaccination and the economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic, according to analysts.

So far in Bolivia there have been more than 262,000 cases of the new coronavirus and 12,015 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Science and Systems Engineering.