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On September 25 at 5 pm, approximately 500 Bolivian police officers tear-gassed and used excessive force against camping indigenous protestors outside of Yucumo, in Beni Department. Initial reports listed one child dead and multiple wounded,[i] although human rights groups have not confirmed any casualties. The violent police action presents the most dramatic example yet in [...]
On August 30, immediately following the “Black October” verdict, convicting five military officials and two ex-ministers for 68 killings in October 2003, the defense team of ex-president Sánchez de Lozada, disseminated a press release claiming the trial was politicized and the verdict invalid. Sánchez de Lozada, along with three former ministers who are also defendants [...]
This afternoon, the Supreme Court decided the final verdict in the trial of 5 military officials and 2-ex ministers for 68 killings in October 2003. The court found all officials unanimously guilty of genocide (in Bolivia this term means the killing of three or more people). The sentences are as follows: Generals Claros & Veliz 15 [...]
On August 19, defendants in the Black October case – five former military commanders and two ex-ministers – began their closing arguments. Oral testimonies closed on August 24th. Judicial officials expect to conclude the trial in the coming week. This landmark case represents an important turning point for the Bolivia’s human rights record as the [...]
The Bolivian judicial system has long required reform. In 2009, the Morales administration proposed significant restructuring in the new constitution and set a staged timeline for these measures to be enacted. One of the most significant modifications is the implementation of judicial elections, calling for popular vote on October 16, 2011 to fill the Supreme [...]
Although the Morales administration has insisted for the past two years that a new bilateral framework agreement precede any other accord with the United States, some sectors of the government aggressively advocated, this trilateral document. The joint actions proposed in this draft agreement are already being carried out efficiently in Bolivia by state institutions (Digprococa-Udestro and Udesy), [...]
Some of the Morales administration’s most successful initiatives have been small stipends, commonly called “bonuses,” disbursed by the government for traditionally under-served sectors of the population.[i] May 26, 2011, marks the second anniversary the Juana Azurduy[ii] bonus designed to provide health and nutrition benefits to pregnant mothers and young children. Requirements The Juana Azurduy bonus [...]
In January and March 2011, several English-language press outlets ran stories on quinoa production in Bolivia. National Public Radio and the Associated Press reported on quinoa as a development project, hailing its benefits to farmers in the altiplano region of Bolivia. The New York Times article focused on quinoa’s rising popularity abroad making it less [...]
On December 29, the Bolivian legislative assembly passed the “Jurisdictional Law,”(Law 73) which recognizes indigenous, first nations’ and campesino judicial authorities, and establishes the jurisdiction of these tribunals versus the central court. Law 73 helps to clarify which cases and individuals can be tried in alternative judicial systems. Most importantly, the law upholds and clarifies [...]
On March 17, MAS party legislators announced that they would make a formal request to remove USAID from Bolivian territory. “We, the legislative party leaders have decided that USAID should leave our country, due to its clear intervention in different departmental governments, their pretext of [providing] seminars, conflict resolution workshops and other excuses for political [...]