Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network in Cochabamba: “The attorney general proposed charges of murder, serious injury followed by death and genocide, defined as anyone ‘killing, injuring, or treating inhumanely all, or part of, an Indigenous or other group.’ The definition includes ‘those directly or indirectly responsible for bloody massacres.’ It’s far from a kangaroo court; the process has checks and balances. Two-thirds of the Legislative Assembly must ratify the charges for the Supreme Court to hear the case. Strong evidence exists. Áñez and her cabinet signed an illegal order exempting the security forces from legal consequences for excessive force against protesters. Undoubtedly, the justice system requires profound reform. Ironically, Mesa’s allies blocked a 2017 attempt. Two-thirds of the Legislative Assembly passed an in-depth law, drafted with input from international legal experts, that addressed many longstanding, structural problems. Protests led by CONADE, Áñez’s party, and doctors, protesting a malpractice article, forced the law’s revocation. It’s striking that Mesa didn’t express concern about the justice system during Áñez’s tenure, during which the same attorney general sanctioned political persecution and failed to credibly investigate massacres and torture. Mesa’s politically neutral successor, Eduardo Rodríguez Veltzé, first proposed a renewed reform in 2020. As he affirms, any credible initiative must start with an in-depth diagnosis of existing flaws and contradictions. Revisiting the revoked 2017 Penal System law would be a good place to start. Yet, the hundreds of victims of the 2019 coup have a right to justice, just as Áñez and her allies deserve due process and a speedy trail. Transparent legal proceedings can’t wait.”
GIEI Bolivia
Informe
Informe sobre los hechos de violencia y vulneración de los derechos humanos ocurridos entre el 1 de septiembre y el 31 de diciembre de 2019.
2021-GIEI-Bolivia-informe-finalDownload
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA: CONGRESISTA JAN SCHAKOWSKY DE LA CÁMARA BAJA DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS – La Cámara de Representantes aprueba texto legislativo Schakowsky-Wild para investigar el rol de la OEA en las Elecciones Bolivianas del 2019 y su Crisis de Derechos Humanos
28 de julio, 2021- Nota de prensa *Traducido: AIN
WASHINGTON – Hoy, la Cámara de Representantes de EE.UU aprobó – Como parte de la ley de Asignación para Operaciones Estatales y Programas Relacionados (SFOPS) para el Año Fiscal 2022 (FY22) – un proyecto de ley de la cámara baja que incluye una propuesta de importancia histórica realizada por las representantes Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) y Susan Wild (PA-07) acerca del rol que tuvo la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA) en las elecciones bolivianas del 2019 y la resultante crisis de derechos humanos que sufrió dicho país.
World Development Journal: From criminals to citizens: The applicability of Bolivia’s community-based coca control policy to Peru
Thomas Grisaffi *a, Linda Farthing *b, Kathryn Ledebur *b, Maritza Paredes *c, Alvaro Pastor *c
a The University of Reading, United Kingdom
b The Andean Information Network, Bolivia
c Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru
Abstract
Between 2006 and 2019, Bolivia emerged as a world leader in formulating a participatory, non-violent model to gradually limit coca production in a safe and sustainable manner while simultaneously offering farmers realistic economic alternatives to coca. Our study finds that not only has this model reduced violence, but it has effectively expanded social and civil rights in hitherto marginal regions. In contrast, Peru has continued to conceptualize ‘drugs’ as a crime and security issue. This has led to U.S.-financed forced crop eradication, putting the burden onto impoverished farmers, generating violence and instability. At the request of farmers, the Peruvian government has made a tentative move towards implementing one aspect of Bolivia’s community control in Peru. Could it work? We address this question by focusing on participatory development with a special emphasis on the role of local organizations and the relationship between growers and the state. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, focus group discussions and secondary research, we find that for community control to have any chance of success in Peru, grassroots organizations must be strengthened and grower trust in the state created. The study also demonstrates that successful participatory development in drug crop regions is contingent on land titling and robust state investment, which strengthens farmer resolve to participate so as to avoid a return to the repression of the past.