Former Bolivian president’s doctor says Jeanine Áñez has acute kidney infection

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A report from the private doctor of Jeanine Áñez, the former transitional president of Bolivia, indicated that she suffers from “acute kidney infection” and requires hospitalization. Still, the other doctors of the penitentiary medical board do not see the need for her to leave the prison where she is preventively detained.

The report of Dr. Pavel Angles was disseminated this Saturday through the social networks of the former president, and it indicates that he participated in a medical meeting on April 21 together with Wilder Huanca, doctor of the Miraflores prison where the former president is being held, and Ramiro Gutierrez, on behalf of the Government.

Angles explained that the former president has “acute pyelonephritis, ” an infection in the kidneys and that Dr. Gutierrez concluded with the same diagnosis. Still, his comments were not recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

The report from Áñez’s doctor detailed that Dr. Gutierrez “suggested that treatment be initiated within the penitentiary” and that both agreed to begin “microbial treatment”. At the same time, “legal proceedings allow her release” to receive proper care.

“Conclusion that Dr. Wilder Huanca did not want to record in the two lines that he had recorded in the minutes,” reads the report.

Huanca maintained that there are conditions for her to receive this treatment in prison and disagrees with her release from prison.

At the end of the meeting, Huanca and Gutierrez determined to start an “intravenous treatment”. According to her evolution, it will be determined if it is necessary to transfer her to a clinic.

“Not having been the conclusion we reached minutes before, I told her that I would no longer be part of the meeting, as my presence and comments were futile, so I withdrew,” wrote Angles.

“Faced with the stubbornness of these authorities, I suggested to the family to start the necessary intravenous treatment inside the penitentiary to protect the health of the former president,” he concluded.

This week, the former president suffered a deterioration in which she had fever, vomiting, and intense abdominal pain. Her lawyers requested that private doctors be allowed to enter the prison.

Áñez has been in prison for more than a month, charged with the so-called “coup d’état”, based on allegations of the alleged conspiracy, sedition and terrorism during the political and social crisis that took place at the end of 2019 and resulted in the resignation of President Morales and the annulment of the elections of that year amid allegations of fraud.