• Direct. Last minute about the coronavirus

The scandal of the overpricing of Spanish ventilators that are not used for intensive care directly hits the provisional government of Jeanine Áñez . The Police took Marcelo Navajas , Health Minister, this morning to the facilities of the Special Force to Fight Crime , as involved in the investigation as "apprehended". At the moment, two health directors from his ministry are imprisoned for the corruption plot.

After uncovering the scandal, the minister justified the purchase by ensuring that the price paid is what is currently handled in international markets. The arrested politicians are Fernando Valenzuela , head of Acquisitions at the Ministry, and Giovanni Pacheco , director of the Agency for Health and Equipment Infrastructure . Both remain in police custody after making a statement yesterday before the Public Ministry.

At the center of the target of the judicial authorities is the purchase of 170 respirators for almost 5 million dollars from the Spanish company GPA Innova to fight against the coronavirus. Initial investigations confirm that artificial respiration equipment was purchased at $ 27,683 each, when its actual price is three to four times cheaper. Furthermore, these respirators are not used for critically ill patients who are in Intensive Care Units , as warned by the Bolivian Society of Critical Medicine and Therapy .

The government purchase was made thanks to the loan granted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Two of its managers are also accused of participating in the plot.

"I ask for jail and I order the full weight of the law against those who have taken a single weight. Every penny of corruption must be returned to the State. Whoever falls," said Áñez, before what has already become his first great scandal of corruption. A scandal that comes at the worst time for the provisional president, questioned for declaring herself a candidate for the presidential elections and whose running mate, Samuel Doria , is peppered by her relationship, years ago, with the detained Pacheco.

The government assures that it will not pay 50% of the amount to the Spanish company, after the first advance made. "If necessary, we are going to go to litigation, but we are not going to pay the other 50% and we are going to reconcile the accounts," Álvaro Coimbra , Minister of Justice , announced this morning .

From the opposition it has been emphasized that the government is trying to divert by taking advantage of the revolutionary militancy of the detainee Valenzuela, who was close to former Minister Gabriela Montaño . "It is obvious that the great scam of respirators that are not used for intensive therapy and at four times its price has high authorities at the head," Montaño defended himself, accusing the minister and the Bolivian consul in Spain, David Pareja .

Nadia Cruz , Ombudsman, also denounced the "total lack of transparency" in the operation.

At this time, the confirmed infections in Covid-19 in Bolivia are 4,481 and the dead amount to 189.

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  • Juan Carlos Campo
  • Spain
  • Bolivia
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

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