RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The former interim president of Bolivia Jeanine Áñez expressed her confidence that “soon” she will recover her freedom and that of Bolivia “with the help of the Holy Spirit”.
The message is contained in a handwritten letter written by the former president, who has been held in a La Paz jail since last March and was shared on her social networks, managed by her relatives.
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“I want to tell you that with the help of the Holy Spirit, I will resist!!! and I know that soon he will give me my freedom, as well as freedom for Bolivia,” Áñez said in her letter.
The former interim president thanked them for the expressions of support she has received, which are “the engine” that allows her to resist “the abuse, hatred and wickedness” of those who “have unjustly and illegally kidnapped” her in prison.
Áñez has been imprisoned for seven months within a process initiated against her at the behest of the government, which accuses her of crimes such as conspiracy, terrorism, and sedition for the alleged “coup d’état” of 2019.
The government of Luis Arce and his party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), consider that the departure of Evo Morales from the presidency in 2019 was due to a coup d’état, while his detractors maintain that the crisis was the result of electoral fraud in favor of the then president in the failed general elections of that year.
The ruling party has initiated a dozen processes against Áñez, some of them through ordinary proceedings and others through impeachment trials of accountability. However, the current closest to Morales considers that the latter, which must be approved by the Parliament, do not correspond because that would mean recognizing the legality of the transition.
Áñez, who cut her arm last August in an apparent suicide attempt, suffers from diseases such as hypertension, peripheral neuropathy, and anorexia nervosa, according to her relatives.
A psychiatric evaluation recently released by Áñez’s relatives states that “although the severity of the depression has diminished, the disorder persists” and the “hyporexia, low body weight and physical weakness” are of particular concern, for which the former president “requires treatment and care that would have a better outcome in hospitalization.”