• Bolivia.The Minister of Health declares for the extra cost of respirators bought in Spain

The scandal with Spanish implications that has cost the prison to Marcelo Navajas, Minister of Health, has only just begun. "We are going to start a process against this company requesting a reconciliation of accounts regarding the referential price of the equipment," Justice Minister Álvaro Coimbra announced this Thursday in La Paz .

Until a few hours ago, the cabinet colleague of the dismissed Navajas has the lead in the open process against IME Consulting Global Services, a Spanish company that together with two Bolivian intermediaries sold 170 fans to the government of La Paz for the amount of 4,360,000 euros, thanks to a loan granted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The purchase of the respirators, made by the ex-minister Navajas, represented an extra cost of 300% when, in addition, these devices do not serve to assist covid-19 patients in the intensive care units, where they were destined.

"We are going to require, through the Public Ministry, your cooperation with the Spanish Public Ministry to make a questionnaire to the company that has provided this equipment, to establish what is the legal situation of this company in Spain," said Coimbra.

The judicial investigations continued this Thursday with the statement, for four hours, of Fernando Humérez, baptized as the "key witness", who claims to have momentous information on how Spanish companies "swindled" the Bolivian government. Humérez is a former leader of local football, a follower of former President Evo Morales. Another of the calls to testify is David Pareja, consul in Barcelona.

The political earthquake that has triggered the corruption scandal and the minister's imprisonment has strongly shaken the provisional government of Jeanine Áñez, including her electoral aspirations. The presidential order, "whoever falls," was immediately executed, but the fate of the funds invested has caused outrage in public opinion. The government has already disbursed half the amount.

"After the case of the respirators, it is urgent that the de facto government transparent the information about the donations, credits and money from the Central Bank of Bolivia received for the fight against the coronavirus and the fate that the high-level committee, formed by Áñez , he gave these resources, "questioned former President Evo Morales from his Argentine exile.

"Putting the lives of Bolivians at risk with such a reprehensible act of corruption is the worst we have seen. It is not very serious for the president to find out what is happening in her government through social networks. We condemn this irresponsibility on such a sensitive issue "criticized Carlos Mesa, the candidate on whom the indigenous revolution planned the electoral fraud that finally caused the fall of Morales.

"The political implications for the president are many. Both Áñez and Mesa (centrist) and Juan Fernando Camacho (right) fight over a similar electorate, colloquially called the Pitita generation . And this scandal undoubtedly diminishes their credibility in that electorate every time more competitive, since Mesa and Camacho are beginning to hit politically. And they do it precisely from the respirators ", summarized for EL MUNDO the political analyst Marcelo Arequipa.

The pandemic has forced to delay the holding of general elections until September as the deadline. Surveys prior to the start of the quarantine placed the revolutionary candidate, Luis Arce, first, followed by Mesa, Áñez and Camacho. The advantage of the former Minister of Economy of Morales is not enough to win in the first round and it is also insufficient, in principle, given the sum of the three anti-revolutionary candidates.

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  • Evo Morales
  • Bolivia
  • Coronavirus

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