Bolivian authorities say former interim president Jeanine Áñez tried to injure herself in prison

(CNN Spanish) – Authorities in Bolivia reported this Saturday that former interim president Jeanine Áñez, in preventive detention since March, “would have tried to generate self-harm” at dawn.

At a press conference, the Minister of Government, Eduardo del Castillo, stated that his health is “completely stable” and that he has “small scratches on one of his arms.”

He added that the consultations were made to Áñez, who is in preventive detention in a La Paz prison, and that he indicated that “she states that she does not know what the motives for which she would have tried to generate some type of injury would be.”

However, Norka Cuéllar and Luis Adolfo Guillén, Áñez’s lawyers, told CNN that “he made an attempt on his life as a cry for help.”

They stated that he has “deep” cuts on both arms, and that he is stable.

The director general of the Penitentiary Regime, Juan Carlos Limpias, said that day that “at no time” has Áñez’s life been put at risk and that his health was stable.

The former interim president of Bolivia was arrested on March 13 in the case known as “Coup d’état.” At the beginning of August, a judge ordered to extend the preventive detention for six months. She is accused of “terrorism, sedition and conspiracy” for her alleged participation during 2019 in a coup against the then president, Evo Morales.

On repeated occasions, Áñez has affirmed that a coup d’état “never” occurred and denounced a political persecution against him.