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Updated March 24th, 2021 at 17:38 IST

Bolivia's ex-interim president Jeanine Anez alleges 'abusive' action in prison

Bolivia’s former interim president Jeanine Anez on March 23 said that her rights were being violated in prison where she is being held in pre-trial detention.

Reported by: Bhavya Sukheja
Bolivia
| Image:self
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In an emotional letter, Bolivia’s former interim president Jeanine Anez on March 23 said that her rights were being violated in prison where she is being held in pre-trial detention. While taking to Twitter, Anez shared a seven-page letter and alleged “abusive” actions by the police and state. She even claimed that the authorities refused to provide her with proper medical treatment and wrote that she doesn’t trust the government’s doctors. 

Anez said, “They're (govt. doctors) part of the system of abuse and repression and have shown they're prepared to risk my life, injecting me with high-risk medication without precautions or previous studies, with the only aim of keeping me in their cells”. 

Further, the former interim president denied the accusations against her and said, “This is a fight for democracy, and we will keep going until the end”. She also went on to describe the ruling Movement for Socialism (MAS) party of Morales and President Luis Arce as a “dictatorship”. She insisted that there was “no coup, there was a fraud”. 

In her letter, Anez said that more than 100 police officers had arrived at her home in the city of Trinidad to detain her “armed to the teeth”. She said that the incident left young members of her family “in a state of shock”. Bolivian police had detained Anez on March 13 in an early morning raid at her home in Trinidad. She has since petitioned authorities to release her to a clinic where she could be treated for hypertension. 

Jeanine Anez’s arrest 

Meanwhile, the arrest of Anez has increased the situation of political turmoil in South America. According to AP, various arrest warrants were also issued for more than a dozen other former officials. These included several ex-cabinet ministers, former military leader William Kaliman and the police chief who had urged Morales to resign in November 2019. 

Anez faces charges related to her actions as an opposition senator and not as a former president. Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo denied it was an act of persecution and said that the case arose from a criminal complaint of conspiracy and sedition filed against her in November, which was when she left office. America’s director of Human Rights Watch, José Miguel Vivanco, said that the arrest warrants against Anez and her ministers “contain no evidence whatsoever that they have committed the crime of terrorism”.

(Image: @Katuwah_CompSci/Twitter)
 

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Published March 24th, 2021 at 17:38 IST

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