Bolivia’s Interim President and Venezuela’s Number Two Infected with Covid-19

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez, and the president of the Venezuelan National Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, strongman Maduro’s right-hand man, announced on Thursday that they are infected with Covid-19. On Twitter, Áñez – who assumed the Bolivian presidency in November, after former president Evo Morales left the country – said she is well, feels “strong” and is in quarantine.

“I tested positive for Covid-19, I’m fine, I’ll work in isolation. Together, we will move forward,” the interim president wrote. “Together with my team, we have been working for Bolivian families all this time. Due to the fact that many of them tested positive for the coronavirus last week, I took the test and my result was also positive. I will be in quarantine for 14 days until I take another test,” says Áñez in the video broadcast on July 9th.

She ends the message by thanking the Bolivian citizens working to fight the novel coronavirus, which has infected almost 43,000 people in Bolivia and killed over 1,500 in the country through this Thursday.

Diosdado Cabello, leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), announced: “From now on I am isolated and following the prescribed treatment.” He canceled the broadcast of his ‘Con el Mazo Dando’ program after suffering what he considered “a severe allergy”. Now it has been confirmed that in reality he is infected with the coronavirus.

Venezuela’s strongman Nicolás Maduro issued a televised message of support to Cabello: “We are with you, Diosdado. I am sure that with your moral and spiritual strength and the protection of our Saint Joseph Gregorio Hernandez, you will overcome these days of treatment and recovery.”

The president said that his number two “is resting, he’s fine, he only had what he believed to be a severe allergy with a slight headache”. Zulia State Governor Omar Prieto has also recently been hospitalized with respiratory disorders and mild coronavirus symptoms.

After months with modest infection figures, Venezuelan official statistics have started to gradually increase in recent weeks. In early June, Venezuela recorded 1,600 cases and 17 deaths. On Thursday, July 9th, the number had risen to 8,008 infections and 75 deaths, according to data released by the Executive. The number of deaths is four to five per day.

After a trial relaxation of lockdown rules, the government decreed a “radicalization” of quarantine. The streets of Caracas and the country’s other cities dawned this week to the Bolivarian National Police, with officers posted a few blocks away on avenues and highways, demanding a license to travel. Commerce and daily activities, which had been permitted, suffered new restrictions.

Source: El País