Final Report - Plurinational State of Bolivia

2019
FINAL REPORT
PLURINATIONAL STATE OF BOLIVIA
The present document summarizes a combination of denunciations gathered in
Bolivia between November 28-30, 2019, that describe the Coup d’Etat perpetrated
and expose the combination of violations of human, social, political, and cultural
rights.
Translated by the Bread and Roses Collective, Burlington, Vermont
INDEX
INTRODUCTION 3
SOCIOPOLITICAL FRAMEWORK 6
● GEOPOLITICAL CONTEXT 6
● CHRONOLOGY OF THE COUP D’ETAT 8
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PERSPECTIVE ON HUMAN RIGHTS 17
VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS 19
● MASSACRES PERPETRATED AGAINST THE CIVIL
POPULATION 20
○ Sacaba massacre 20
○ Chronology of the Sacaba massacre 21
○ Chronology of the Senkata massacre 22
● ARBITRARY DETENTIONS 31
● ATTACKS ON THE INTEGRITY AND
REPRESSION OF PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS 38
● SEXUAL CRIMES 51
● REPRESSIVE PATRIARCHAL PRACTICES 55
● MATERIAL REPARATIONS FOR VICTIMS OF
REPRESSION 61
OTHER VIOLATIONS OF ESTABLISHED RIGHTS: cases of Argentine
citizens 63
● ASE OF SEBASTIAN MORO 63
C
● CASE OF FACUNDO MOLARES SCHONFELD 66
VIOLATIONS OF POLITICAL RIGHTS 71
● REPORTS OF INCIDENTS OCCURRING IN THE CITIES OF
SANTA CRUZ, POTOSI, LA PAZ Y SUCRE 75
VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO ACCESS JUSTICE 83
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 84
ANNEX - EVIDENCE 87
Translator’s Note: Following are the stories of countless Bolivians recounting tales of brutal
racism, volence, and rape on the part of not a fascist government, but a neoliberal one without the
need for a mask. This part is important to stress. We may not live under the thumb of this
particular regime, but we all live under the force that allows it to exist. This force is what despots
like Pinochet, Videla and Rios Montt weaponized against their people, what runs the American
foreign policy that gives these abhorrent people a blank check, and is what will be taught in our
most prestigious universities to the next generation of ghouls, murderers, and their apologists.
This force is neoliberalism, and only with its dismantling will we see the end of this cycle of
exploitation for good. I am only a student, far from a professional translator, yet I felt compelled to
take on this thirty thousand-word document so that no American “progressive” has any good
excuse not to read it. If it reaches even a fraction of them, my efforts will be validated.
Venceremos.
-S.V.D.
INTRODUCTION
The military/civilian coup perpetrated in the Plurinational State of Bolivia is one of the
most tragic international events in Latin America in the last few years. The coup
represents a brutal setback in South America’s transition towards consolidating
democratic systems in the region, resolving socio-political conflicts in peace and
self-determination, and constructing systems that combat poverty and social inequality.
This delegation, created as an urgent action of solidarity, presents in this report the
results of its participation in the mission whose principal mission was to observe in
situ before, during, or after the coup violations of human, social, political and/or
cultural rights. The contingent was in the Plurinational State of Bolivia on the 28th,
29th, and 30th of November, with the participation of a multidisciplinary team of
professionals and leaders of The International Federation of Human Rights.
With a well-stocked work agenda, the contingent carried out visits, interviews, and
meetings with victims of crimes against humanity and their family members. They
took the testimonies of around one hundred people in a safe location in the city of El
Alto. They visited victims in their homes, as well as those hospitalized (in the Hospital
Boliviano Holandés and Hospital Municipal Modelo Corea, both located in El Alto),
and they held meetings in different areas of La Paz with persecuted political leaders,
journalists and urban social movements, campesino and indigenous.
The delegation could not carry out the entirety of planned activities due to explicit
threats from (de facto) Minister of Government Arturo Murillo and the action of civil
task forces that harassed workers with total impunity during the entirety of their
stay. With these mechanisms the dictatorship not only attempted to frighten the
delegation and to prevent the completion of the proposed objectives, but also to
instill fear and terror within the population, principally in those who attempted to
denounce the government and organize to resist the coup.
The de facto government installed in power from November 10th proclaimed to

reestablish democratic channels in the framework of the Rule of Law. As historical
experience regarding de facto governments dictated, the new regime violently
changed its course towards a dictatorship that day by day stripped the rights,
liberties, and guarantees of the population, in particular of the most vulnerable.
Despite a media blackout imposed by the regime, images circulated of brutal

repression against peaceful protests of the working-class and native population;
hateful and supremacist views emanating from the principal actors of the coup
were televised and distributed throughout the internet; the extent of political
persecution and lynching against social leaders and political representatives has
been made public, and the testimonies of the repression organized by the de facto
government that could be accessed first-hand are recognized with growing gravity.
In our country, the government of President Mauricio Macri and his Ambassador to
Bolivia Jorge Faurie, before finishing their terms, did not classify the events as a
coup d’etat and established a complicit presidency that is an embarrassment to the
Argentine democratic tradition of the last few decades. Almost all of the countries
in the region acted in this same way, going so far as to deny the authorization of
airspace usage for the democratically-elected President of Bolivia, Evo Morales,
(with a constitutional mandate until January 22, 2020) so that he could leave the
country with his life. In this way, without neighboring governments in solidarity,
without regional articulation spaces as UNASUR once was, which reacted
immediately before situations of democratic danger, the plan to isolate the Bolivian
people and cover up what was happening in Bolivia was implemented without
major obstacles and with the maximum support of the government of the United
States.
In this desolate context and with the certainty that a crucial moment was at stake in
Latin America, we resolved to form this delegation of solidarity with the Bolivian
people. Under the idea that the people should do what governments do not, a
broad group of social and human rights organizations, unions, and politicians
organized themselves with the mission to observe violations of human rights and
gather reliable and direct information, as well as to provide to the victims a secure
channel of complaint, facing the closure of justicial routes and attacks on liberty by
the de facto government.
The field work carried out and this report reliably demonstrate the inexistence of a
rule of law in Bolivia, the extreme gravity and amplitude of violations of human,
civil, social, political, and cultural rights, under the category of crimes against
humanity, and the complete lack of guarantees of ordinary internal legal routes.
The present report looks to describe in the most detailed way possible acts
recollected, organized, proven, and denounced by more than one hundred Bolivian
citizens before the Argentine Delegation in Solidarity with the Bolivian People
during their stay and later communications and denunciations received in
Argentine territory.
The uncontrolled repressions by the current de facto government against the

Bolivian people have already sadly resulted in dead, wounded, and disappeared
people, physical aggressions, racist demonstrations, social fragmentation and hate
incited by mass media and the police, among other many repressive acts that are
detailed in this report.
Fulfilling our task of solidarity, together with our Bolivian brothers and sisters who
at every step, in every hug, between sobs, asked that we would carry their voice,
the voice of those who don’t know where to go; with the rigor that our commitment
and background oblige us to attain; with the pain that we feel for the abandonment
of the victims; with the unyielding obligation for truth, justice, and the will of the
people; we face this task that we hope will contribute to the recognition of the acts
committed against the people, the implication and judgment of those culpable, and
reparations for the victims.
At the same time, this delegation considers that solidarity remains essential, as
does the broad national and international diffusion of the most grave crimes that
have happened and will happen, reaffirming the necessary application of
democracy, the respect of cultural diversity and social rights, and the construction
of a route of restitution for the State of Law in Bolivia.
SOCIOPOLITICAL FRAMEWORK
Geopolitical context
In this chapter we will present an institutional legal analysis of the sociopolitical

situation in Bolivia. We share the opinion that it is impossible to understand the
complex reality in which the described acts occur, the complaints received and the
violations denounced, without a reference point.
In this line of thought, we understand that one cannot prove that a coup d’etat has
occurred without placing it in a geopolitical context, an economic and historic
context in particular. The current Bolivian political situation is the product of a Latin
America that is disputed and tensed between world power blocs. The trade war
between China and the United States, and the dispute over natural resources both
countries import, in which other countries join, have an important role in resolving
disputes in our continent.
The United States intends by diverse methods to maintain its domain over
territories and key zones to sustaining its power. In its course, the Trump
administration has forcibly resumed its presence south of the Río Bravo with
interventionist attitudes and a greater rigor and diplomatic, military, commercial,
media, and cultural presence in the area.
In this way we can understand that Bolivia is a key geo-strategic piece in the
region, owing to its central geographic position in South America and its plentiful
natural resources, especially lithium. During the fourteen years of the government
of president Evo Morales, they carried out constitutional reforms that advanced the
nationalization of natural resources. It is of public knowledge that that they were
working and advancing in the strategic manufacturing of lithium batteries. These
measures supported the political, social, and economic incorporation of indigenous
nations. The Plurinational State of Bolivia was not unfulfilled in the Constitution, but
was based in the economic independence that grew with the State's administering
of its natural resources to the benefit of its national majorities. In those fourteen
years, Bolivia achieved a world sustainable growth economy, with high levels of
social and democratic inclusion, under the presidency of a representative of the
indigenous majority.
In order to determine the dictatorial and anti-constitutional character of the

government, it becomes necessary to analyze the action of the principal architects
of the coup, who with a set of coordinated actions will break the constitutional order
in Bolivia.
• The secretary-general of the OAS, Luis

Almagro.
• Carlos Mesa, presidential candidate in the October 20 elections.
• Luis Fernando Camacho, president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee,
ex-director of the Unión de Juventudes Cruceñistas, classified by the
International Federation of Human Rights as “a kind of paramilitary group”
characterized by racist attacks and discrimination against indigenous and
campesino citizens and organizations in the region.
• Jeanine Añéz, who assumed the presidency after having obtained in the
elections 4% of the votes.
All of them are necessary participants and allies in the sowing of seeds of distrust
in the electoral result; in street violence; in the bribery of the police force to leave
the streets free for the action of paramilitary groups; in the growing violence
against members of the government and their families and against social and
political activists. They are all members of an association to gain the power that the
popular vote denies them.
In this context, President Evo Morales will resolve to return and call new elections
thinking that this act will achieve peace in his county. Yet the coup is already in
course, and facing the threat of civil war, he will present his resignation. The
resignation, to this date, has not been accepted by the National Congress.
Chronology of the coup d’etat
In this section we will detail in conjunction the actions that were deployed in
different fronts. In every situation that we describe in continuation there is one
common denominator, the generation of a context of fear and terror in the
population that culminated in the removal of the constitutional government. The
fear and terror permitted the de facto regime to consolidate the democratic
breakdown, intending to neutralize the population’s capacity for resistance and
condition the new elections to be held in March 2020.
The October elections

On October 20th, 2019, the presidential elections were held. The government of
Evo Morales was up for reelection. It is necessary to point out here that it has been
argued that the reelection was illegitimate in attempts to justify the coup. In this
sense we would like to state that our intervention in the territory of the Plurinational
State of Bolivia was not intended to interfere in the resolution of internal problems.
Our intervention was forced by a material and supranational fact, the breaking of
constitutional order and the incitement of state violence against the civil population,
that includes flagrant violations of human rights. In the elections, the Bolivian
people had the opportunity to state their position on the reelection of
President Evo Morales. This cannot be reason to justify a coup.
Several opposition candidates ran in the elections, such as the center-right

coalition Comunidad Ciudadana, headed by ex-president Mesa and other minor
parties of fundamentalist and far-right leanings, whose aspirations were to reach
an eventual second round, where they believed they could defeat the MAS
government.
Prior to the elections, the opposition installed in the media the idea that MAS would
resort to electoral fraud in order to avoid a second electoral round. During the
tallying of the votes, the same day as the election, Mesa announced that MAS had
not reached the 10% superiority needed over the second most-popular party to win
in the first round. From this announcement, he began a “second round” campaign
without waiting for the publication of the final results by the Electoral Tribunal.
With the final count of 8 of the 9 departments, 99% of the records verified that MAS
had obtained the majority to win in the first round, exceeding the 10% difference
over the second party.
Analyzing the results of other elections, the late pro-Morales results are those of
remote departments, these places being more heavily indigenous and campesino
communities, social classes heavily supportive of MAS.
The delegitimization of the electoral process: the installation of

suspicions of fraud
The interruption of TREP (Electronic Transmission of Election Results) in the

counting of the votes for 24 hours, was the given reason to delegitimize the
electoral process, the final results of which still remained in progress.
The opposition then held a general strike for an indeterminate time with the
blocking of routes, and a public meeting where Camacho extended the protest into
other cities, inciting a campaign to pressure Morales to tender his resignation. No
longer were they trying to achieve a second round, nor waiting for the results of the
OAS audit (planned for November 12), the objective was the destruction of the
government.
On October 22nd, Camacho, ignored in the 48 hours he had given to President

Morales to present his resignation, held another public meeting where he
disseminated a letter that outlined the terms of the resignation of the Bolivian
president. From this moment he began outlining plans to arrive in La Paz to
expedite the process of the coup.
In this context diverse public establishments were attacked by paramilitary groups,

who in addition to generating havoc, carried out a symbolic rite of the coup: they
took down and burned the Wiphala, they sang the national anthem, prayed,
and raised the Bolivian tricolor.
On October 23rd, the government denounced the incitement of a coup d’etat by the
right-wing opposition and said that this process was being carried out with
international support. The recall strike extended itself over the whole country and
incidents between officials and opposition began to occur.
On October 24th, the Organization of American States (OAS) and international

inspectors from the European Union, United States, Colombia, and Argentina
legitimized the authorization of a second electoral round, arguing the necessity to
reestablish confidence in the electoral process.
On October 25th, while the results were announced, proclaiming victory for the
Morales-Linera ticket with 47.08% of the vote against Mesa’s 36.51%, the
opposition already began mobilizing on a national level, not recognizing the results
and delegitimizing the election due to “fraud”.
On October 31st, the OAS underwent an audit on a recount of the votes. This was
requested by the Morales government itself, but was rejected by the opposition. As
a consequence, burnings of various Electoral Tribunals in the cities of Santa Cruz,
Potosí, and Sucre occurred, allegedly by pro-coup forces. Handheld video depicts
members of the tribunal, demonstrating evidence of the complicity of internal
sectors of the state apparatus favorable to the installation of the climate of
“rejection” of alleged fraud.
The popular response and growing violence before the

resignation of Evo Morales
On November 6, the women of the Bartolina Sisa Movement, from Cochabamba

held a march in support of the government and the electoral triumph. The peaceful
march was attacked by paramilitaries. Various women were kidnapped and beaten,
with no police action, even though they were still loyal to the government at this
time. The women were freed later, but this act marks the first intervention of
vigilante groups.
Afterwards, the paramilitaries marched to the city hall of the city of Vinto,
kidnapped the mayor Patricia Arce, dragged her through the streets, cut her hair,
and threw red paint onto her, while subjecting her to physical and verbal
aggression.
The process of terror transferred itself to the public and community radio stations,
that were attacked and their journalists threatened. One case in point is that of the
Confederatión Campesina radio station, whose director was tied to a tree for hours
under the accusation that arms were hidden in its headquarters.
The deployment of the paramilitaries synchronized itself throughout the country,

instilling terror by means of aggression, extrajudicial detentions, and threats
against the families of public servants, arriving at the point where many civil
servants elected by the governor of Potosí, Juan Carlos Cejas, and the governor of
Oruro, Victor Hugo Vásquez Mamani, resigned.
The threats were widespread, the houses of civil servants and activists were
marked down, amongst them, Gabriela Montaño, Minister of Health. Photographs
of her house and location were spread, a clear intimidation tactic. When the origin
of the cell number through which the information was circulated was investigated, it
was found to belong to a former worker at the United States Embassy.
In Santa Cruz, the Civic Committee called a strike that was enforced by vigilantes,
financed by local businessmen. The stoppages were extended to a national level
with the same characteristics of extrajudicial support.
The far-right promoted the destabilizing process, displacing the center-right under
Carlos Mesa, second in the elections. The leader of the Santa Cruz Civic
Committee, Luis Fernando Camacho, threatened to go to La Paz in order to
demand the resignation of president Evo Morales. On the first attempt, Camacho’s
plane was forced to return to Santa Cruz on landing in La Paz due to the presence
of MAS supporters in the airport. On the second attempt, the government allowed
him to arrive, using police to block off the airport from MAS activists. Finally,
Fernando Camacho arrived in La Paz to drive the coup.
Confrontations were deepening in Cochabamba and other parts of the

country.
On November 8th, police unions incited riots in Cochabamba, Sucre, and Santa
Cruz. This same day they organized in the Plaza Murillo in La Paz, and a public
meeting to direct the police ultimately resolved to support the coup.
On November 9th the police unions incited riots and allowed the action of
paramilitary forces to increase in magnitude and violence.
On November 9th the OAS released its preliminary report where they argued
“manipulations in the computer system”, put into doubt the difference of 10%
needed to avoid the second round and fundamentally went on to “recommend
another electoral process...with new electoral authorities”. By releasing the
preliminary report, originally planned for November 11th, early, they accelerated
the outcome of the coup and assisted the military intervention in deposing the
president.
Facing the growing violence, Morales decided to call new elections. On November
10th the Armed Forces and the Police asked the president to resign.
The paramilitaries aggressively took action instilling terror in various

neighborhoods of La Paz, where they went out in the night to knock on doors of
people’s houses and utter threats. The groups acted wearing hoods, and were
invisible during the day. In accounts, the presence of Venezuelan “guarimbas”
was reported, task forces that operated in the anti-Maduro destabilization process
in Venezuela.
The community of La Paz began to organize to counteract these groups. In the

face of the rumors of looting and aggression, they created self-defense groups in
different neighborhoods, barricading streets and bridges in the city. Those
entrances had allowed the campesinos to enter La Paz in 2008. Now, precisely in
the neighborhoods near such entrances, they put up barricades against the terror
steeped in rumors of vandalism and looting.
The days that followed November 11th were governed by a state and public terror,
and by the uncertainty and fear of the Bolivian civilian population. The massacres
of Sacaba and Senkata, which we detail further in this report, took place under the
protection of Decree 4078 of Immunity of the Armed Forces, signed on November
14th. The law was secret for several days. On November 12th, the same
independent media sources recounted to us that the Police of La Paz broke into
tears in front of cameras after a burning of the wiphala. They asked forgiveness in
their native languages, while asking the Armed Forces for intervention. Attacks
occurred against personal security, against the freedom of movement and freedom
of expression, with damages to property and personal goods.
As a product of the rage and violence that threatened social leaders and party
members of MAS, numerous leaders went into hiding out of fear, others remained
paralyzed without forming an organized response to the coup. As a consequence,
this produced a shift of the existing pipelines to new leaders who led protests
against the coup.
Between November 11th and 14th, deaths were reported in the area south of La
Paz. Armed forces interrupted the mourning of the dead, prohibiting any ceremony.
On November 12th, the confrontations with the police forces intensified, and this
was used by the police in order to pressure the Armed Forces to intervene in the
repression, arguing that they have become overwhelmed by the protests.
On November 14th, the coup government passes Decree 4078, which exempted
from criminal penalties all military forces in cases of repression, to ensure their
legality. In short, it granted impunity to the military for repression. The
Interamerican Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) alerted that this law
“disregards international standards” of human rights and “stimulates violent
repression”. Despite these warnings, the law fulfilled its fundamental objective
which was to consolidate the coup with the direct intervention of the Armed Forces
in repression.
The Bolivian Armed Forces (FAB) and the Police coordinate their
actions during the coup to force the resignation of the President
Multiple media outlets inform that the police forces were the first to pledge support
to the coup, in return for certain shared privileges, such as a retirement equivalent
to the benefits of the armed forces and various economic claims and benefits. The
police mutinies freed the streets so extrajudicial violence executed by
paramilitaries could be deployed without problems against social movements and
forces loyal to the MAS government.
The military intervention happened when the opposition movements occupied the
principal cities, with the support of paramilitary groups, reinforced by the police
mutiny. Faced with a possible breaking of the chain of command, the Chief of Staff
intervened, “suggesting” to president Evo Morales that he resign.
The Chief of Staff, speaking on behalf of the whole Armed Forces, said: “We
suggest that the president of state renounces his presidential mandate, to
allow peacemaking and the maintenance of stability for the good of our
e justified this intervention in order to avoid “the escalation of the
Bolivia”. H
conflict that spans the country, watching for the life, the security of the
population, the guarantee of rule of the political environment of the State.”
The attempt was made to present this act as a democratic compromise of the FAB
with the Constitution, arguing that they were not going to fire on the people.
However, as you will see later, they were only excuses in order to try to minimize
the process of the coup, that was already planned before the calling of the
elections.
President Evo Morales denounced the coup and justified his resignation as a
gesture of pacification in order to halt the violence that was out of control with
cases of burned activists and leaders intimidated into resigning under threat to their
families. Despite the resignation, the process of terror was not only
maintained, but increased.
Fernando Camacho burst into the Governor’s Mansion and entered with a Bible
warding off the “demon” that had been expulsed from Bolivia, with the departure of
Evo Morales from said house.
The designation of the de facto

president
The resignation of President Evo Morales, his Vice President Álvaro García Linera
and the heads of the chambers of the senate and deputies (Adriana Salvatierra
Arriaza and Víctor Borda Belzú), formed a power vacuum that was intended to
delegitimize the coup.
Despite the resignations, the legislative assembly without quorum designated a

second chair of the Senate as president. A member of the opposition party “Plan
Progressivo para Bolivia Convergencia National”, that had obtained 4% of the
votes, assumed the position with military support, who placed the presidential sash
on her. She then declared that she was heading a “transition” government in order
to hold new elections.
The new de facto government was immediately recognized by the governments of

the United States, Brazil, Russia, and other countries of the European Union. Who
takes over, how they take over and who accompanies the takeover will be
elements to consider in order to argue in favor of who the de facto government is
concerned with. It will also help us to demonstrate the direct support and the
international complicity in the coup d’etat.
The mask of “democratic normalization” and “underlying terror”
The coup consolidated its main objective, to displace the elected government, veto
Morales’ future candidacy and feign an institutional “normalcy”, although
underneath such appearances, they maintain a repressive order of various
coercions that instill fear and terror.
On November 25th, the de facto president and the majority of the opposition to
MAS in parliament agreed on an Exceptional and Transitory Law for the
Realization of of the National and Subnational Elections, with the aim of
contributing to the pacification of the country and normalizing its democracy. The
agreement provided for the annulment of the election of October 20th, the
designation of new members of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (SET) and the
holding of new elections in a short amount of time.
Civic Committees and Task Forces, or Terror Forces
In the history of Bolivia, during different times, there have been strong forces called
Civic Committees. In Santa Cruz they have a long tradition integrated in the
Federations of Business Chambers, the Student Federations and the Trade
Federations.
The leader of the Civic Committee of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho,
brought together with his family the Business Investment Group National Life S.A.
diversified in various activities such as insurance, gas, and services. He appears
mentioned in the Panama Papers as the intermediary in three offshore companies
(Medis Overseas Corp., Navi International Holding and Positive Real Estates).
These companies are the object of investigation because they were used as fronts
for money laundering, flight of capital, and tax evasion.
The leadership of Camacho is fundamentally based on a white, Christian, and

nationalist Bolivia. He managed to channel and exacerbate the antagonism
between the Christian faith and the indigenous people, and between the defense of
the Republic and the Plurinational State. His religious fundamentalism postulates
against his adversaries: “Satan, out of Bolivia, now” reinforcing the history of
colonial domination and racism not only against indigenous peoples in general, but
against indigenous women in particular and all sexual diversity. Similar to other
regional leaders like Jair Bolsonaro, the regional right wing sustains and advances
a religious discourse of a crusade of domination and social exclusion. The
permanent appeals to God and the Bible in acts and rallies and violent attacks on
organizations of the poor, originate from a supposedly redemptive sense of a
Christian and white Bolivia.
Under the protection of these committees, they have developed in regions such as
Santa Cruz and Cochabamba paramilitary task forces to instill terror in the
population. Both the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista (UJC) and the Resistencia Cochala
(Motoqueros) run themselves as forces of shock and fear against social,
indigenous, and campesino organizations, against people of modest means, and
against the indigenous “mujeres de polleras” which, as a whole, are fundamental
agents of the process of change in Bolivia.
To the existing conflicts in Latin American countries between wealthy groups that
see threats or don’t want to lose economic privileges, to the usual conflicts in
middle classes of society in regard to the ascent in social mobility of groups
historically put down, in the case of Bolivia the feeling of “white colonial”
supremacy is added. Those racist cracks, that appeared to be on track for
resolution as they were addressed in the new Constitution of the Plurinational
State, emerged as if they had been under a pressure cooker. The hatred of the
campesinos and the native people was installed as a crucial part of dividing the
classes who were common enemies of the coup. It was not only a civic distinction,
that of the middle classes who went to protest against a government. The
opposition drilled racism to reassure social exclusion, towards the reestablishment
of a hierarchy of social and racial tiers that had began to shift with the rise of Evo
Morales to government. The caste society - contrary to the Political Constitution,
valid since 2009 and is enshrined by the Plurinational State of Bolivia - that the
coup d’etat intends to restore is the necessary precondition for the completion of
an economic model depending and consisting of social exclusion of the majority of
indigenous peoples and campesinos.
The symbolism of the coup adopted religious forms, both in its adopted
neo-Pentecostal evangelism, where the political struggle is fought alongside the
fight against the Absolute Evil (Satan), as well as the Catholic Church, and the
endorsement of the reinstallation of the “Bible” in the legitimization of the coup,
against the beliefs of the native people. As such we can note that this coup is civic,
political, military, and ecclesiastical.
The president of the de facto government also is known for racist comments
against indigenous peoples: “I dream of a Bolivia free from indigenous Satanic
rites, the city is not for Indians who live in the highlands or the chaco” (Tweet
sent on 14-04-2013 5.24 pm @Jeanine Anez). During her self-proclamation as
President she held to the sky two Bibles, as a symbol of the restoration of the
Christian crusade.
INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PERSPECTIVE ON HUMAN

RIGHTS
From an international legal perspective on human rights, we can assure that the
testimonies gathered and the proof collected in the territory of the Bolivian people
have violated international standards, conform to the regulatory plexus
essential for normal functioning of the Rule of Law, and constitute the
hermeneutics of a respectful, responsible State committed to human rights.
The self-proclamation of Jeanine Añez without the mediation of legislative quorum

or a valid legal decision that designated her, was the act that the de facto
Government approved as part of the coup d’etat. It remains essential on this point
to not mistake the impermanence or the orders of the coup d’etat with the
constitution of the de facto government.
While the coup d’etat began to organize its iter criminis before the October 20th
elections, the de facto government proclaimed itself with institutional
responsibilities on an executive level of power on November 13th.
Between October 20th and November 13th, the FAB and Police withdrew, allowing
coup forces to clash openly in the streets with MAS sympathizers that mobilized
themselves demanding the recognition of Evo Morales Ayma’s electoral victory.
These acts ended with the deaths of numerous people, and left a long list of
wounded, tortured, raped, humiliations, destruction, and burnings of municipal
buildings and of social organizations, as well as the persecution of journalists and
alternative media from Bolivia and other countries. These acts should be attributed
to the architects, mediators and intermediaries, primary and secondary
accomplices, instigators and concealers of the coup d’etat.
The freedom of the areas described above, organized by the coup plotters,
permitted the ascension of the de facto government, that later assumed in its
functions and overruled foreign decisions of international legal regulation, violating
the International Treaties on Human Rights that the Plurinational State of Bolivia
ratified and adhered to.
Once in charge -through illegitimate and illegal means- of the Executive Branch of
the Plurinational State of Bolivia the government of Ms. Jeanine Añez has
committed two massacres of public knowledge, the first on November 15th in the
city of Sacaba, and later on November 19th in the city of Senkata, increasing the
death toll and human rights violations against the indigenous and poor population,
with disregard for their political participation or opinion, demonstrates to the world
in a tangible manner that in Bolivia there exists a de facto government put in place
by a coup d’etat, and that none of the leaders of the coup or the de facto
government respect international regulations or human rights most essential to life.
Among the violations of international regulations of the treaties that can be

detailed:
1. American Convention on Human Rights.
2. International Pact of Civil and Political Rights.
3. Convention on the Prevention and Sanction of Acts of Genocide.
4. International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial

Discrimination.
5. International Convention for the protection of all people against forced
disappearances.
6. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women.
7. Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treaments
or Punishments.
8. International Convention on the Rights of Children.
onvention N° 169 on Indigenous Peoples and Tribes in Independent Countries,
9. C
of the International Organization of Labor (IOL).
10. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
11. Rome Statute: International Criminal Court
The presentation of the testimonies, such as the proof collected by this delegation,
allows National, Regional, and International Human Rights Organizations to use
them as proof to act through legal, institutional, and diplomatic channels, so that
the respective denunciations, ultimately of the heads of the coup d’etat and of the
de facto government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, do not remain unpunished
and the victims and family of the victims obtain justice for the abhorrent acts that
are described further on.
VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS
After examining the recounted information, the Argentine Delegation in Solidarity

with the People of Bolivia is in a position to say that there have been violations of
human rights during the months of October and November in 2019, mentioned in
the preliminary conclusions presented on November 30th of this year in the city of
El Alto, La Paz, Bolivia.
Such as was mentioned in the introduction, during its stay the delegation
interviewed approximately one hundred people, visited hospital and homes of
victims, and met with activists and with urban, indigenous, and campesino social
movements. They also intended to visit jails and detention centers but it was
impossible due to our own Minister of Defense and Attorney General whose offices
refused to support such an endeavor.
Both the interviews and the analysis of findings and information collected in them
were carried out respecting minimum criteria established by by the Committee
Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatments or
Punishments (CAT) and the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture and other
Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatments and Punishments (SPT), both from the
United Nations; the National Committee for Prevention of Torture (NCPT
Argentina); and the Association for Prevention of Torture (APT). (1)
According to international standards, the testimony of the victims and their families
acquires a significant value in contexts such as this, facing extrajudicial killings,
torture, and illegal detentions, in which the body of evidence is at the exclusive
disposal of the State and of the people targeted as perpetrators. This value makes
such statements an essential element for the impetus of judicial process to
investigate, sanction, and adequately repair grave violations of human rights.
It should be added that the victims of violations of human rights have a

fundamental role in the discovery of the truth. In this sense, the International Court
of Human Rights have established in the case of the Moiwana Community v.
Suriname that “during the process of investigation and the judicial process,
the victims of human rights violations, or their families, should have broad
opportunities to participate and be heard, both in the clarification of the acts
and the punishment of those responsible, in the search of a just
compensation” (2)
The the same line the Spanish professor Muñoz Conde explains in connection with
the ad hoc tribunals created to judge the crimes committed in Rwanda and the
former Yugoslavia that “the principal difficulty that these tribunals faced in
fulfilling their mission was the obtaining of sufficient proof to condemn those
responsible [...] the main evidence in these processes has been the victim’s
own testimonies, the shocking tales of the brutality that they suffered
together with their family members and neighbors, the mistreatment, the
arbitrary detentions, the looting of their properties, the rapes, the murders”
(4)
Consequently, the analysis of the testimonial sources and documents obtained

allows us to proclaim with a sufficient degree of certainty the following conclusions
in respect to the vulnerabilities of liberty, integrity, and with the lives of the victims
of the acts that occurred between the days of November 15th and 19th, which are
substantially consistent with the expressions of the IACHR in preliminary
observations of their visit to Bolivia.
Massacres perpetrated against the civil

population (5)
At the moment of preliminary communication, the Delegation reported that it had

taken note of acts occurring in Sacaba (Cochabamba) -with at least twelve (12)
dead people, hundreds of wounded and arbitrary detentions-, and in Senkata (El
Alto) -with at least nine (9) dead people, disappeared people, and hundreds of
wounded and arbitrary detentions-.
Sacaba Massacre
The Sacaba Massacre in Cochabamba was perpetrated on November 15th and

ended with 12 dead.
In Cochabamba, a peaceful march was held to La Paz, in a vindication of the

wiphala. The intention was not to occupy the city of Cochabamba, but only to take
to the streets of the city in the claiming of respect for the symbol of native peoples
and the mujeres de polleras. On the way, they were intercepted by police forces
who ordered that they wait so that they could accompany and safeguard them. As
the agreed time passed, more police forces appeared, with the backing of FAB
troops.
The peaceful march, that was headed by women with children, began to be
violently suppressed, followed by the arrests of protestors, while security forces
fired with live ammunition. Numerous people were killed by high-caliber rounds, the
arrested were gathered and tortured in the police stations. No mass media covered
these events.
The armed forces and police tried to invent a story where the dead were shot by
the campesino protestors in the march. The results of later ballistic investigations
reveal high caliber firearms inaccessible to those who held the march.
The autopsies reported the deaths as only traumatic brain injuries, they did not
indicate causes, nor the type of bullets extracted from the dead and wounded.
Chronology of the
massacre
A meeting of the 6 Federaciones del Trópico planned a march to the city of La Paz,
through the Trópico, in protest of the burning of the wiphala, the running-over of a
mujer de pollera and the actions of the coup, demanding the return of Evo Morales.
Having arrived in the town of Sacaba, a municipality close to the city of

Cochabamba, the protestors found the bridge of entry into the city closed by
soldiers and police, blocking their entry. An attempt was made to establish a
dialogue, but that failed, and minutes later the police and military fired tear gas, but
later, in the confusion of the gas and the shouts, they began firing bullets (around
midday).
By 15:00 already five people were reported killed by firearms. At the end of the day
the dead reached 12, among some of them: Lucas Sánchez, Emilio Colque, Juan
López, César Sipe, Omar Calle, Marco Vargas M., Armando Carvallo E., Plácido
Rojas D., Roberto Cejas.
● The large amount of wounds, that exceeded one hundred, caused the
hospitals near Sacaba to be overwhelmed by medical attention needed.
By night, attempts were made to bring humanitarian aid to the wounded and
campesinos in Sacaba, but they were not allowed to pass at the Huayllani Bridge
by the police and military.
The following day, inhabitants of the area south of the city of Cochabamba
marched to the town of Sacaba with the intention of ending the blockade and
allowing the campesinos to pass into the city. As had happened the day before,
they were stopped and repressed, but this time without the usage of lethal force.
Senkata
Massacre
As part of the protests against the coup government, protestors began blockades
and mobilizations in different regions, such as those in El Alto, in La Paz.
Resistance to the coup in El Alto blocked access to the Yacimientos Petrolíferos

Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) plant of fuel sourcing and supply, located in Senkata, in
order to block fuel supply to La Paz, which began to suffer fuel shortages as a
result. The protest maintained its guard during the day and kept vigil during the
night. They condemned the de facto government, and demanded the return of
Morales, the repeal of Decree 4078, and the defence of natural rights, among other
demands.
Two days before the massacre, the police ordered their entrance and the leaders
of the blockade let them pass. This demonstrates that the intention was never to
take the plant, let alone cause damage or attack the establishment, as the
government tried to claim later.
Monday, November
18th
Following the announcement of the Añez government, through Hydrocarbon

Minister Victor Hugo Zamora, it is announced that they will supply gasoline and oil
to La Paz imported from Peru and Chile.
Around 20:00 in the city of La Paz, tear gas was fired against people representing
the 20 districts of the department that had held a vigil in the streets surrounding
Plaza Murillo demanding the resignation of Añez.
Tuesday, November
19th
Before the brutal acts that occurred in the city, residents of Senkata that already
established a barricade in District 8 and adjacent places later by November 12th,
radicalized the measures with a protest blockade in front of the YPFB plant to block
the shipment of fuel (gasoline and diesel) to La Paz.
On Tuesday, November 19th, the government ordered the destruction of the

barricade in what was defined as a joint operation of the Armed Forces and Police.
They escort with a military unit assault vehicles, “caimans”, armored cars,
helicopters, and a convoy of 49 tanker trucks and road machinery to cover the
ditches that blocked transit on Route 1. After a negotiation with the leaders of the
protest, the military and police forces managed to secure the passage of fuel and
gas cans and took them to supply the cities of La Paz and El Alto.
However, having completed the objective of obtaining fuel and gas, the military and
police forces resolve to occupy the plant and assault and detain anybody who
intended to resume the blockade.
Between 9:00 and 11:30, the military and police began to fire gas and lead bullets
against the gathered population. They began running and seeking cover behind the
cement median barriers, which helped most victims avoid the shots.
The protests manage to regroup by barricades in Achocalla and the military force
begins to “intervene”. According to stories of survivors of the attack, they indicate
that two people were detained in the plant by the army. Therefore, there were
attempts to rescue them. The police opened fire, the military started shooting, and
gas grenades were thrown from helicopters. We were also told that there were
snipers that shot from the balconies of houses in front of the plant. They informed
us that the military lifted bodies from the ground and carried them away in vans in
the middle of the shooting.
The attack left a massive amount of dead and wounded, some of them killed when
they attempted to help the wounded and/or move the dead.
In the attempt to recover the bodies of the dead, the attack continued with several
helicopters firing into the crowd. The civil population recovered nine bodies and
brought them to the Parish of San Francisco. In total, fourteen people were
recovered dead and 41 wounded.
The massacre ended around 18:00.
The victims relate that they found the bodies of the dead in Achocalla, thrown into
the Senkata waterways. Others died in the hospitals, while some families managed
to hide the dead and wounded in their homes. The bodies recognized in autopsies
performed in the Parish of San Francisco were only eight. Many stories, however,
refer to at least twenty dead, most of them being young people.
Wednesday, November 20th - Public Meeting

Within 24 hours of the massacre, District 8 was completely militarized. However,
thousands of people gathered at a public meeting near the 25 de Julio Parish,
where eight dead were also being mourned. Attorneys and forensic doctors were
present, who indicated that autopsies would be carried out in agreement with the
appropriate proceedings. When the night fell they had only carried out two and the
rest of the bodies’ autopsies were not completed.
Those present in the Town Hall were people of District 8, 14, 2 and 3, residents of
North Potosí, of the 20 districts, and the Tupak Katari and Bartolina Sisa social
organizations.
Some of the resolutions of the meeting were:
-A massive march through Senkata to La Paz, led by the coffins to show their
partisan dissent and the demand for the resignation of Jeanine Añez.
. -Justice for the dead, wounded, and disappeared.

-Defense of autonomy and self-determination of the indigenous people of Bolivia.
-Respect of the Wiphala and the mujer de pollera.
-Freedom on all detained.
-Repeal of Supreme Decree 4078.
Despite the existence of clear footage of the shootings, the Minister of Defense,
Fernando López intended to deny everything: “I would like to make clear that
the Army did not fire even a single projectile. The Armed Forces abides by
the premise of permanent dialogue”. In line with the de facto government
headed by Jeanine Añez, he said: “The Bible and peace continues guiding us
for all of our actions, those linked actors of violence already have a character
of State terrorism”.
Thursday, November 21st - Repression in

La Paz
On Thursday the 21st the community of El Alto resolved to accompany the funeral
procession with the coffins of the dead in Senkata and intended to march into the
city of La Paz, rejecting the accusations of terrorism and demanding justice.
After the agreement of the public meeting, the march of thousands of people set off
for La Paz around eight in the morning. Headed by the coffins, the march arrived in
San Francisco at approximately 13:00. A coffin was placed on top of a military
assault vehicle that was part of a police intimidation operation. The massive group
could not be contained by the first cordon of security forces. Seconds after, they
began their suppression with the firing of gas to disperse the marchers.
Multiple images showed the brutality of the unleashed violence. In their desperate
retreat, the crowd could not carry two coffins away. Several people were arrested
and the march retreated to the city of El Alto, after harsh oppression and
persecution.
Testimonials
Deceased person identified as N° 1

DEVI POSTO CUSI, 34 years old. He worked in the presale business (placing
orders due to a lack of movement). He lived close to Senkata.
He left his home on Tuesday, November 19, around seven in the morning to go to
work. Since he lived far from Senkata, he went down the trail on the Bechia road.
After finishing his work, he and his coworker had to pass through Senkata. There
they ran into the massacre. The two went running. The coworker saw everything
that happened, she saw him murdered by shots from a helicopter. He was brought
to the Hospital Japonés at approximately 11:00.
At noon they informed his father (the claimant) that his son was wounded, but upon
arrival to the hospital they told him that his name was amongst the names of the
dead. There was one more injured person in the hospital.
He assured that it was the military, due to the trajectory of the bullet, which entered
the body from above to below.
His family is willing to formally report the facts but lacks a lawyer due to a lack of
resources. They assured that there hadn’t been any visits or interviews by any
authority.
The family of the victim presents as proof: the death certificate, a copy of his ID
card and as testimonial proof, the declaration of his coworker that was an
eyewitness to the attack.
ANTONIO RONALD QUISPE TICONA, 24 years old, did not participate in marches
or barricades. Neither he nor his family belonged to any political party. He was not
found to be in a state of inebriation at the moment of his death. He wanted to join
the army but did not pass the entrance exam. He studied at the Higher University
of San Andrés (UMSA) in the engineering school, but due to his economic situation
he also had to work to support his family.
The victim worked in a club. He left for work on November 19th at 13:30. The last
time his family saw him alive, he was taking a minibus which dropped him off
before arriving in Senkata. Due to the violence, the driver let the passengers off
before arriving at their destination. His mother went out at 16:30 to shop and at this
moment his uncle saw on the television somebody who looked like him that was
dead, lying in the street. They went to ask for him in hospitals and morgues until
they found his lifeless body in the chapel. He had a bullet in his head. They insist
that the soldiers shot him from a helicopter.
They mourned him for two days. There were six dead in total in
that location.
The neighbors brought the coffins to the city and ran into military forces, with tanks
that fired gas at them along with shots from firearms. As a result of this, the mother
and father of the victim, along with others who helped with the work of carrying the
coffins, received wounds. At the time of the denunciation they had not received
medical attention due to a lack of resources.
A doctor, in carrying out the autopsy, made a cut in the head of the dead man to
extract the bullets, not allowing family members to be present and hiding the
bullets that proved not only the cause of death, but the perpetrator of the attack.
The other people had also died as a result of gunshots, their bodies were observed
to have bullet wounds in the head, stomach, and lungs.
The family members presented as proof: the death certificate, ID card, three
photographs of the lifeless corpse in public view. where one can see the wounds
that caused his death (the image of his body also appeared on television), a written
testimony from his brother telling the story of the events. As testimonial proof: the
brother, father, mother, a person who alleges that the dead man saved their life
and neighbors that helped the funeral and were themselves survivors of the attack.
PEDRO QUISBERT MAMANI, 37 years old, father of three young children.
The victim was attacked upon leaving his work, on the 19th of November, between
16:30 and 17:00, in public view in Senkata, in the city of El Alto. Friends and family
claim that the use of a backpack was proof of guilt to his killers, since this kind of
discrimination was usual.
His family expresses fear of reprisals, since they assert that they have received
telephone calls with threats and accusations.
They present as proof the death certificate that determines the cause of death as
hypovolemic shock, pulmonary lacerations, and thoracic shock caused by a firearm
projectile.
MILTON DAVID ZENTENO GIRONDA, 24 years old, third-year law student at

UMSA.
On November 18th, the victim attended class as normal, and later stayed at his
girlfriend’s house, who during the conflict was living in Senkata. He informed his
family, by text message, that he would stay the night there. The next day (19/11)
he again went to class, but the university issued a statement announcing that they
would close its property to carry out a peaceful march with white flags. For that
reason, we can deduce that the young man attempted to walk home (given that the
public transport was not working). Between 16:00 and 17:00, when he tried to
return home, he passed by the scene of the massacre and received a bullet wound
in his head.
The authorities did not allow him to receive medical assistance but neighbors
interceded and brought him to the Hospital Corazón de Jesús. It was his girlfriend
that informed his family that he was hospitalized. They withheld information to
family members in the hospital, they were not even told that it was a bullet wound.
He remained in a coma, suffering loss of encephalic mass and the possibility of an
operation to remove blood clots and bone from the brain and install a plate did not
guarantee his recovery.
On November 22nd, he finally died in the hospital. The following morning the
Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra el Crimen, (FELCC) intervened, since he was
patient who died of wounds occurring in Senkata. The body was transferred to the
Hospital de Clínicas for the performance of the autopsy. A cousin attended the
proceedings, and found out that he had a bullet wound. With prior knowledge on
the subject, he determined that it came from a FAL rifle.
Among the proof supplied by the family was a death certificate, a written testimony
from his brother, a copy of medical studies, a medical certificate signed by Dr. Jiris
Quinteros Jorge (mat. J-291) Hospital. Corazón de Jesús), photos of the body and
the bullet extracted. As testimonial proof the neighbors who assisted him and
brought him to the hospital told their story, (the last person alleged that he saw him
alive and was the first to notice of what occurred) as did the cousin who attended
the autopsy.
RUDY CRISTHIAN VASQUEZ CONDORI, 23 years

old.
On November 19th, between 15:00 and 15:30, he left his house to buy bread and
received a bullet wound. He was taken to a sanitary station in Zona Panorámica 2
and from there was brought in critical condition to the Hospital Holandés. This case
is currently being investigated. They have performed his autopsy and extracted a
projectile, at the moment of the interview they had a ballistic report pending. The
person who gave the testimony refers to having seen the projectile and affirms that
they treated “a 22”.
Provided is his death certificate which indicates that he died on November 20th
and establishes as a cause of death “lesion of the superior central nervous system,
encephalic lacerations, encephalic brain trauma penetrated by a firearm projectile”
JUAN JOSÉ TENORIO MAMANÍ, 23 years old, mechanic and locksmith, father of
a year-old child.
On November 19th he left his house at 10:00. He was killed while helping the
wounded. As he was not allowed to be brought into the hospital, they brought him
to the church.
Provided as proof is a death certificate and photos. The death certificate indicates
as causes of death “hypovolemic shock, pulmonary lacerations, thoracic trauma
caused by a firearm projectile”.
Deceased person identified as N° 8 (6)
EDWIN JAMACHI, 38 years old, a mason by trade. Father of a son and two
daughters..
On November 19th, he went to work and was shot in Senkata. The military
impeded people bringing him to the hospital.
CLEMENTE ELOY MAMANÍ SANTANDER, 24

years old.
On November 19th, he was killed in Senkata while going to the house of a family
member. He arrived at the Hospital del Corazón de Jesús in a taxi with two bullet
wounds at 14:00. After an operation, he died at 23:05.
Presented as proof is Clemente’s ID card, accounts from the clinic and a death
certificate. This last piece indicates as cause of death “hypovolemic shock,
laceration of iliac vessels, abdominal pelvic trauma caused by a firearm projectile”.
JOEL COLQUE PATTY, 22 years old, student, worked in a security business,

didn’t belong to any political party. He was an evangelical Christian. He lived with
his brother.
On Tuesday, November 19th, the government had to take fuel to La Paz, for which
38 trucks were sent, but the plant was blocked by protestors. Joel returned to work,
simply traveling through the surroundings of Senkata, where the armed forces
were attacking everybody who passed through the area with chemical agents and
gunshots. The young man was struck by a bullet. There was no medical help, so
they autopsy determines he died of blood loss, caused by pulmonary and cardiac
lacerations and thoracic trauma caused by a firearm projectile.
The shots began around 10 in the morning (Joel was the first death) and lasted
until about 15:00. The people tore down the walls to recover the dead.
The hospitals refused to attend to the wounded, many people would not have died
if adequate medical attention had been available. There are many witnesses that
tell of the manner in how they were killed and also can give an account of other
forms of violence.
As proof, the family members supplied: a death certificate, birth certificate, and
three photographs of the victim. Even though no testimony in particular identified
him, it was mentioned that many people were present at the moment of execution.
From the interviews carried out during the visit, it stands out that, in general, the
killings which relieved information have in common the principal common patterns:
1) They were victims of the abusive usage of firearms on the part of the armed
forces and security forces, in some cases they were shot from helicopters;
2) The families assure that they were going to work or class, and did not
participate in any type of protest or gathering;
3) The attacks were on the 19th of November, on the public highway in the area of
Senkata;
4) The same doctor signed all of the death certificates;
5) The families were informed of the deaths through family members, friends or by
the media.
Arbitrary detentions
(7)
The delegation took note of the arbitrary detention of eleven (11) people.
After interviewing their families, they concluded that the detentions in general
shared linked similarities in the scarcity and arbitrariness in reasons to justify
the arrest; falsified charges; excessive violence in the proceedings and the lack
of a judicial order before or after to support the actions of the police. These
patterns all fit with the findings communicated by the CDIH in their preliminary
conclusions.
Detained people identified as N° 1: (three people)
One is a locksmith by profession, at the moment of interview he was detained in

“San Pedro” prison.
According to the claims of his family, he was detained on the street in the center of
El Alto, on the night of Saturday, November 9th. On Friday, they ordered remand
and he was transferred to San Pedro prison. He suffered physical and
psychological violence on the first night of his detention.
They accompanied their story with a scanned copy of the beginning of proceedings
on November 28th from the office of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Special
Offenses, headed by Prosecutor Sarina Guardia Guardia.
It informed them of his arrest, together with the other two people (a porter and a
mason), for the crime of “destruction or deterioration of the good of the State and
the national Wealth” (art. 223 Bolivian Penal Code).
The act that led to his detention was reported in the following form.
When, in agreement with the Police Report to Prevent Direct Action, Second
Lieutenant Samuel Baptista Mamani and First Sergeant Zenón Condori Mamani
reached the scene, it was on the date of November 9th, 2019, around 01:00. A
mob of furious people began to attack with stones the offices of the the F.E.L.C.V.,
breaking down the front door with sticks and rocks and entering, consequently, the
staff had to hide in the back of the offices, calling nearby patrols on the radio as
reinforcements, who almost immediately came to their aid, apprehending three
people who were trying to flee the place of the attacks, the same as recognized by
Captain Juan Yujra Gutiérrez who is in charge of the offices, who was hidden
behind the front door, who were responsible for the damages in the office such as
breaking of glass, destruction of computers and printers that were found in the
offices, and breaking of the windows and windshields of two police trucks and a
motorcycle found on the patio, the perpetrators have been apprehended and driven
to F.E.L.C.V. facilities.
Detained people identified as N° 2: (four people)
One is 18 years old, when he was arrested he was underage. At the moment of
interviewing his family, he was being held in a rehabilitation center for minors. They
state that he has problems with his mental health.
The family relates that he was detained together with other people in La Ceja,
close to the street trolleys, after they were accused of causing destruction and
disturbance in the area. They assure that the police invented a reason to arrest
them.
The week after, they were allowed to visit him in the detention center. They found
him trembling and highlighted that his body had signs of torture, he had a swollen
face and was tied with wire.
They hold the police that detained responsible for his state. The judicial authorities
did not permit them to access paperwork and did not inform them of the penal
investigation, and they assure that they are inventing a cause to justify the violation
of liberty.
In the same document where the information of detained person No 2 is stated, the
information of the other three (3) arrested people is detailed.
The victims are two brothers and a sister that were detained from November 11th
to November 15th. One of them does not know how to read or write.
Between the dates referred to, they were held in three different detention facilities.
Their family claims that they suffered beatings and torture.
They assure that they were arrested in the streets when they went to work. In the
same operation, almost forty people were arrested and brought to the police.
According to the statements of their families they were accused of the death of a
sergeant, arson, and terrorism. For this reason, when the victims were arrested,
they made them change their clothes and put on bulletproof vests. They are
accused of acts of aggravated robbery, criminal association, criminal organization,
and carrying of illegal substances.
Regarding the torture and lesions they suffered, attached are copies of
documentation produced by the Hospital Municipal Modelo Boliviano Japonés and
the Hospital Municipal Boliviano Holandés, that reports a firearm wound on the
thigh of one of the victims that hospitalized her between November 20th and 23rd
after surgery.
Detained person identified as N° 3
He was arrested on November 19th, between 14:00 and 15:00. At the moment of
the interview, he was being held in the San Pedro Prison.
According to the claims of his family, he was arrested between 14:00 and 15:00,
six blocks from the plant at Senkata, where he had left work on his lunch break.
Police agents arrested him as he was talking on his phone.
The legal investigation is being carried out by the La Ceja District Attorney. They
accuse him of terrorism and and the family claims that the defense lawyer provided
by the Public Defense Office suggested to him that he confess to the crime.
During his detention, the family expressed that he was hit on the head and suffered
torture. They tried to file a complaint, but it was not received.
Detained people identified as N° 4: (two people)
Two (2) brothers were arrested on November 11th at 17:00 in Plaza Murillo, by
civilians that brought them to Regiment No. 3. They were accused of burning
houses. The civil detention was extremely violent, the victims being beaten until
unconscious.
The person interviewed, a family member of the victims, expressed that they were
informed by the Ombudsman’s Office to go on Tuesday, November 12th to the
detention center to attempt to free them. They could attend only on November
13th, and after waiting twelve hours they were asked to leave without receiving
information.
Detained person identified as N° 5:

He was arrested by the police when he went to buy gas in Senkata. The police
acted violently during the arrest, using and firing lethal weapons.
Together with the victim, a relative of the person that presented the testimony, they
detained one other person.
In connection with the arrests, the IACHR indicated that:
● Hundreds of people were arrested between the time of the beginning of the
protests and the visit of the delegation. Based on a report presented by the
Attorney General’s Office, it is observed that most arrested people find
themselves in pre-trial detention, and in many different cases the detentions
have not been preceded by judicial order, but carried out as pre-trial custody
with little or no legal basis.
● Information obtained on October 22nd revealed that the Police have

apprehended at least 21 young demonstrators.
● The Public Defense Office documented that on November 12th, it had carried
out checks in the FELCC cells, where they found 28 arrested people, including
4 under 18 years of age, for the protests that had happened in El Alto.
● The Attorney General of Bolivia communicated in the DCFSE Report No.

153/2019, that by November 26th, 364 people had been arrested in the pre-
and post-election violence, from which a high percentage were arrested without
prior judicial order, and many remain held by the date of the IACHR Report
(December 10th).
● Their technical team was able to determine, in its visits to prisons of the La
Paz Departmental Court of Justice, that they do not keep a complete or careful
list of people that have been detained in this context.
● They received repeated reports of acts of physical and verbal mistreatment,

such as beating, kicks, insults, threats, or similar acts, inflicted on people at the
moment of arrest by the agents of the police. Accordingly, the IACHR takes
note of the report of the Public Defense Office on November 22nd, that refers
that among the group of arrested people in the FELCC cells, 18 had visible
wounds in different parts of their bodies, two of them severe, and everybody
required medical attention that had not been provided.
● In the San Pedro Prison in La Paz, some detained people testified before the
IACHR that they had been beaten and insulted by agents of the Police at the
moment of arrest, as well as being forced to kneel down and other physical
humiliations.
● The Service of Prevention of Torture (SEPRET) of Bolivia reported that the

arrested people in the last few weeks were being brought to places different
than the penitentiaries and jails where they were planned to be held, where
physical punishments were applied, with gas, beatings, and other attacks.
● They also received information about threats and aggressions against held
people, as well as the lack of a detailed register of people brought to detention
centers, in consequence exposing them to situations of high vulnerability, as
well as a high risk of victims of torture or forced disappearance.
The IACHR emphatically condemns both massacres (Sacaba and Senkata).

Expressively, they consider them massacres, by virtue of the number of people
that lost their lives in the same manner, time, and place. in addition, they
considered that the patterns of registered wounded offer serious indications of
practices of extrajudicial execution.
It is worthwhile to stress that identifying potential testimonies and obtaining

declarations in connection with investigated deaths is one of the fixed guiding
points of the IACHR when they consider that a death could be a result of an
extrajudicial execution. (8)
Summing up the report, the IACHR

indicated that:
● They took note that by the 27th of November, 36 people lost their lives in
Bolivia.
● They received abundant information about the two massacres committed in

Sacaba and in Senkata, the 15th and 19th of November, respectively, where at
least 18 people died.
● They affirm that the Senkata massacre occurred on the 19th of November,
after a group of MAS partisans carried out a blockage around a hydrocarbon
plant in the Senkata district in El Alto.
● The people that gathered had blocked one of the perimeter walls of the plant,
where they were suppressed by the firearms of the Police and the Army.
● They maintain that nine people were killed instantly by gunshots: Devi Posto
Cusi, Pedro Quisberth Mamani, Edwin Jamachi Paniagua, José Colque Patty,
Juan José Tenorio Mamani, Antonio Ronald Quispe, Clemente Mamani
Santander, Rudy Cristian Vásquez Condori y Calixto Huanacu Aguilar.
● Amongst the dead, they count various people that it seems were not
participating in the blockade, but simply passing through the area on the way to
their houses or jobs.
● Numerous people were also wounded by bullets, beatings, gas inhalation and
other connected causes, and were cared for in different hospitals in El Alto.
● As with the Sacaba Massacre, some public officials, forensic and police, have
denied that the bullets that killed these citizens had been fired from regulation
weapons of the police force.
● According to public declarations, and before the IACHR, the victims

maintained that they were gathering publicly without violence and they were the
object of suppression with firearms by the agents of the state.
● There have also been public complaints about the disappearance of various
lifeless bodies that have died in this same massacre, which had been
recovered by state agents without releasing news of the dead people. In
particular they reported that this was the case of a campesina woman, and a
girl of about 12 years, among others. The victims of that massacre consistently
stated that the dead was much more than the nine reported to this day.
● In addition to the dead reported in the massacres of Sacaba and Senkata, the
technical team heard the denunciations of the murders of Beltrán Paulino
Condori Aruni, 21 years old, and Percy Romel Conde Noguera, 32 years old,
who were killed by gunshot and of Juan Marín Félix Taco, 18 years old, whose
cause of death has not been determined, all those during the containment of a
protest of the inhabitants of the districts of Ovejuyo, Pedregal, Rosales and
Chasquipampa in La Paz, between the 10th and 11th of November. According
to the information presented by the Public Defense Office, those dead, as well
as various wounded, were caused by the arrival of the police forces and military
at the place of the protest, having identified an excessive and disproportionate
use of force in this incident.
● The same day, the death of Miguel Ledezma González, 24 years old,
occurred, seemingly by the impact of non-regulation metal buckshot, in a
confrontation with police and military forces in Sacaba.
● Furthermore, they were informed of the death of various people during violent
conflicts between different groups of individuals in the framework of the
protests, like the death, on November 11th, of Filemón Soria Díaz, 45 years old,
whose body was found in Cochabamba with its hands and feet tied, that had
been strangled by a strap. On November 12th Juan José Mamani, 35 years
old, died in Cochabamba, after being beaten to death by a group of people; and
Marcelino Jarata Estrada was killed in Potosí by a gunshot. In Santa Cruz, in
the district of Montero, on October 30th Mario Salvatierra and Marcelo
Terrazas were killed by gunshots, as was the youth Roberth C.S., shot on
November 13th in the same city; the death occurred during confrontations
between protestors carrying out blockades and members of opposition groups,
in which snipers apparently participated.
Attacks on integrity and repression of public gatherings (9)
The delegation determined the usage of violence against public gatherings to be

absolutely disproportionate. In particular they could accredit to members of the
army and security forces many different violations of human rights, such as grave
injuries, acts of torture, and sexual violations and abuses.
As was already stated, the recovered reports and evidence describe the
indiscriminate usage of firearms, tear gases, shots from helicopters, bursts of fire
from military vehicles and beatings being used to forcibly disperse gatherings. In
addition they point out the lack of medical attention on the part of public hospitals,
the possible roles of doctors in detentions and interrogations of the hospitalized,
and the heightened cost of surgical procedures that they were subjected to in
private hospitals.
The usage of firearms left wounds in parts of the bodies of the victims who
reported that the usage of firearms during the protests was abusive and contradicts
basic principles, like those detailed in the “Basic Principles on the Employment of
the Force of Firearms for Officials Charged with Maintaining the Law” of the United
Nations (articles 9, 11 b and c, among others).
In the interviews carried out, 17 people wounded by projectiles fired by armed

forces and police were noted.
Wounded person identified as N° 1:
The victim is a mason’s assistant, providing for a family. He was wounded by a

bullet in his left arm on November 11th. He was denied public medical attention.
He received deficient medical attention and was operated on eight days after the
event. He can no longer work. He was not participating in the protests.
Between 10:00 and 11:00, he was struck by a bullet that fractured his arm. He
assures that he was not part of the protest, he simply was buying fruits and
vegetables.
He tried to receive attention at the Villa Dolores health center but they did not allow
him in. Later, together with other wounded people, he took a taxi and went to the
Hospital Holandés. The professionals that they saw also refused them medical aid,
telling them that they had to suffer for being “partisans of evil”, although he claims
that he does not belong to any political party.
Until 13:00, he was suffering from blood loss without any medical attention, lying
down on a stretcher. He spent eight days in the hospital with the bullet lodged in
his body. His family had to buy all of his medication, bandages, and other supplies
because the hospital would not cover them. The cost was about 20,000 bolivianos
in total.
He was operated on eight days after his arrival, and stayed in the hospital for six
days afterwards. He asked for the bullet they extracted from him but the hospital
did not allow him to have it.
He does not know who shot him. Consequently, his main complaint is with the
authorities who denied him medical attention, the discrimination he suffered from
health professionals, threats, and harassment.
The victim presents as proof of the acts he reports of the shirt he was wearing at
the time he was shot, with the bullet holes and blood stains, and x-ray photographs
that were taken of his arm.
He expresses that he risks losing his arm due to the injury and his economic
situation means he cannot carry all of those costs.
The victim is a mechanic, supporting a family. He was wounded by a bullet on

November 11th. The bullet entered above his elbow and exited through the back of
his left arm. He was denied public medical attention. He received deficient medical
attention and underwent surgery seven days after the event. He risks losing the
arm due to the wound. He did not participate in the protests. While he was
hospitalized, his wife was interviewed by the IACHR.
He relates that on November 11th, at 17:00, he was working on his house on a

peripheral road. It is a remote area, without transit.
His neighbors had gone to watch for looters around 16:00. When they began to
hear gunshots, his father left to gather his sheep, and he followed him in order to
help.
He arrived at a confrontation between protestors and police that spanned three

blocks. First he saw the white gases that spread out through the air. He estimates
that there were nine police cars and trucks and nine police motorcycles, with two
agents on each.
There still were no soldiers. He claims that the police were going to fire directly at
people. When they were returning home, with his father running behind him, he felt
a blow on his hand and believed it to be a rock or a gas canister, but on seeing
blood, he realized that it was something else. His hand began to bleed and he lost
consciousness. His father dropped the sheep he was carrying and helped him
together with two neighbors. They made a tourniquet to stem the bleeding slightly.
They took him to a car and crossed the blockades to arrive at a health office where
no help was given. From there they went to a hospital in the Vallivianas district,
where also no help was given. After seven hours, they arrived at a private hospital,
FIDES. He could not stand the pain, so the nurses that received him carried him to
the emergency room and blindfolded him.
The doctor said to him, since the victim is a MAS supporter, “let Evo cure you” and
then left, so the nurses attended to him. His wife arrived at the Hospital Holandés,
but did not have enough money to pay (the cost of attention is 200 bolivianos). In
the Hospital Holandés he stayed for 14 days, after seven days he was operated
on. The bullet entered and left above his elbow.
The victim presents as proof of his statements: a copy of the medical certificate,
x-ray images of the fracture, a copy of writing soliciting a medical summary, a
handwritten report of the suffered acts, photographs of the wound, and an invoice
carried out for the x-rays and the plates.
In the handwritten report of the acts he emphasizes the reason that he had
approached the confrontation (to help his father get his three sheep that were
grazing), that he went running and received a shot from behind that wounded his
right arm, and that in the hospitals they discriminated against him for being a
“masista” and for not having money.
He presents as witnesses his father, his wife, and a person who helped transfer
him to the hospital.

The victim is a female student under 18 years of age. She suffered a bullet wound
to the leg on November 11th in La Ceja. She alleges that the police began to fire
“without mercy”. She received surgery immediately and stayed in the hospital for a
week.
She expresses that she was with her mother on the Puente Grande in La Ceja,
close to 10:40. There had been demonstrations and police were containing them.
Moments after she began running, she was shot by the police. The bullet entered
and exited.
She could not walk. Her brother helped her to walk until she couldn’t go on. A man
helped her, but she kept losing blood and lost consciousness. She took a taxi with
her mother, her brother, a man, a woman, and a young man wounded in the hand.
They received her at the hospital, admitted her to the emergency room, performed
an ultrasound, then surgery, which she left at 15:00. She was hospitalized for a
week, and released on November 18th.
She provides as proof, copies of: her inpatient papers, ID card (it confirms that she
is underaged, as does the ultrasound report), report of the ultrasound admission,
identification file or reference form; photographs (they provide evidence of the
wound and bleeding) and videos of the moment of arrival at the hospital, and
hospital invoice.
In the ultrasound report (eco-Doppler study of the left inferior member) carried out
in the Boliviano Holandés municipal hospital they arrive at conclusions in respect to
the wound that was reported. It is signed by Dr. Edgar S. Pérez R. (radiologist,
CMB P-276 MP P.575)
The identification file (Annex No. 1, Reference form No. 1) expresses that the
patient was admitted to emergency care due to hemodynamic instability,
hypovolemic shock, hypertension, and tachycardia, with a wound in the left leg with
profuse bleeding. It recommends urgent surgical intervention to control the
damage, in which protocol in enclosed.
It indicates as a presumptive diagnosis: a) hypovolemic shock; b) peripheral

vascular trauma (by a projectile)
Signatory Doctor: Dr. Marvel Gaspar

Paredes.
In the inpatient sheet the dates of admission (11/11/2019, at 14:00) and discharge
(20/11/2019, at 8:00) are recorded. En la hoja hospitalaria figura la fecha de
ingreso (11/11/2019, a las 14:00 horas), y el día en que se le autoriza el alta
(18/11/19, 08:00 horas). It is signed by the same doctor Gaspar Paredes and the
Insurance Advisor of the Boliviano Holandés municipal hospital.
She proposed, as witnesses to accredit her: her mother, brother, and the woman
with whom she shared a hospital room.
The victim did not provide personal details due to fear of reprisals against him and
his family. He was wounded by a shot in his right foot on November 11th, when he
was going to work. The shot was fired by the police. He was not participating in the
protests in the place where he was wounded. He went a week without medical
attention and at the moment of the interview had not had surgery due to fear of
political persecution. He formally complained before the IACHR.
He relates that on Monday, November 11th, he walked to work. When he crossed

over the Puente Grande into La Ceja, there was a protest. The civil police force
opened fire, wounding him in the right foot, and he passed out. The same people
that were at the protest helped him in this moment. After, he spent a week
wounded without medical attention. Once he went to a hospital, they looked him
over and were going to attend to him, but they intended to detain him so he had to
flee. Due to economic reasons and the fear of prosecution, at the moment of the
interview he was without medical attention and needed to be operated on.
He recognizes the responsibility of the civil police force as well as the lack of
medical attention in his situation
He did not carry out legal action due to the fear of persecution, he only reported
before the IACHR.
He counts as available proof of the act: 1) a copy of radiography carried out in the
hospital; 2) a shoe with a bullet hole (not there); 3) blood-stained pants and socks
(not photographed); 4) the bullet (taken by the IACHR); 5) a copy of his identity
card.
In connection with the evaluation on risk situation he can observe: 1) risk of losing
his right foot; 2) medical neglect; 3) persecution by the police.
The victim is a bricklayer. He was wounded by a bullet in his left leg on November
11th. He was not participating in the protests. He was admitted to the Hospital
Holandés, received stitches and stayed two (2) days before his release. Due to a
lack of money his documentation was retained by the hospital. Finally, Red Cross
doctors aided him.
In connection with the acts, he related at the time of interview with the delegation
that on November 11th at about 10:00 he went to his workplace - to the “Work
Center” in El Alto-, and on the Puente Grande in La Ceja the police opened fire
while releasing tear gas. There was a protest in the area but he did not participate.
When he was wounded he passed out, and was transferred by ambulance to the
Hospital Holandés, where his wound was stitched and he was hospitalized two (2)
days until he was granted discharge.
During his hospitalization, civil police wanted to arrest him. Two doctors hid him to
avoid detention. As a consequence of his wound, he does not have the strength to
walk. All of his documentation remains at the hospital until he pays. Later, Red
Cross doctors took out the suture. He recognizes Fernando Camacho and the
police who fired gas and shot their firearms as responsible for his situation.
He supplies as proof: 1) photos of his ID card and of the wound in his leg; 2) the
x-ray images that remain at the hospital.
In connection with the evaluation about risk situation he can observe: 1) a risk of
losing the leg (a nerve is broken in two); 2) threats of detention; 3) a economic
situation, that doesn’t allow him to work and afford costs.
The victim worked in maintenance, and is currently a student in systems. He was

shot in the leg (fracturing the tibia and fibula) by the traffic police on November
11th, on the way to his job. He underwent surgery, but he doesn’t have money to
buy the necessary elements for a new operation. His medical records are retained
by the hospital.
In relation to the acts he related that on November 11th, he went to work in

maintenance. He saw (...) in the place. He returned home (...) there was a lot of
smoke. The foot began to (...) and robbed him, could not help him. (...) wounded by
a Mauser bullet. They destroyed a bone. The first operation cost 2000 dollars. He
does not have the money for another operation (21000 bolivianos).
In respect to available proof he related that they would not give him his medical
records. He attached two photos that prove the wound in his foot and the surgical
intervention.
He was wounded by a firearm in his left leg (fracturing the tibia). He has not had
surgery due to a lack of money.
In relation to the acts, he related that he was wounded in his left leg, suffering a
tibia fracture. In order to be operated on he needs to buy a “golf club” plate with
fourteen (14) openings which is valued at 14000 bolivianos. He has reached out to
the Public Defense Office and charities.
As available proof he counts a copy of the medical receipt for a “golf club” plate
dated November 20th, 2019, signed by Dr. Javier Mendoza Espindola (MP-M 1459
MPCM M- 546); and a copy of his ID card.
The victim was a woman who suffered a bullet wound to the head from a police
helicopter, on November 19th. She was not participating in the protest. She was
admitted to a private hospital.
In respect to the acts she related that on Tuesday, November 19th around 14:00,
she went on a walk with her sister but was not participating in the march. The
military and police began to open fire from helicopters. She called for her father
and felt a sound in her ear. She went to the (...) and held onto a man. Everything
was dark. She realized that she was bleeding. They kept firing and they hid her in a
newsstand. They brought her to Centro 79 wounded, she was already passed out.
They poured iodine on her. They transferred her to the hospital “...”, the bullet was
in her head. At 17:30 they performed a CT scan (private). The bullet was not found,
it entered and exited. She also had a cracked head. She returned to the clinic for
monitoring but they did not attend to her. The police arrived and conducted an
interrogation. She told everything - that she was not in the march. The doctors
notified the police because she had a bullet wound. Finally she went to the private
hospital at 21:00 and they charged her. She expresses that there was a hooded
young man in the (...) that she saw every day.
She provides as available proof the testimony of her sister.
He was shot by the army on November 19th. He was not participating actively in
the protests. The army invented a charge of terrorism.
In relation to the acts he related that on November 19th he was working as a

seamster. His mother left in search of… Senkata… he despaired for his mother
because he didn’t know where she was. He went to search for her, he arrived at
(...) approaching him he saw a wounded woman. The army opened fire and the
people threw stones. This happened close to 19:00. A bullet wounded him and
they brought him to an aid station. They attended to his grave wounds. The
confrontation ended with bullets against stones. At the medical center they told him
that he had to know… to the hospital...
He maintains that due to discrimination he was delayed for shifts. He wants people
to find out what is happening, he does not belong to any political party and the
government accuses him of terrorism.
The victim is a tailor and musician. He was wounded by a firearm in the leg by the
police on November 11th. He did not participate in the protest, yet got shot when
crossing through the area on a bicycle. He underwent surgery in the Hospital
Holandés. He suffered mistreatment on the part of doctors, and civil police
personnel entered his hospital room before his operation.
He relates that he was going to buy work supplies on November 11th, riding his
bicycle, in the middle of the gas attack, he saw that people had dropped to the
ground, and was shot in the left leg by the police. The people around him aided
him and made a tourniquet. He was brought to the Hospital Holandés. He was
mistreated by doctors, they kept asking him, “What are you going there for?”
Various people entered his room, forensic doctors from the police. Finally he
underwent surgery. He can not return to work so far. He is indebted to a bank but
he cannot pay them off because he cannot work.
He counts as available proof pants stained by blood with a bullet hole

(photographed), they never opened the bag where the clothing he wore on the day
of the attack is, and a photograph of the wound.
The victim is sixty years of age. The bullet wound in his leg keeps him from walking
(date not provided). He holds the police accountable.
In relation to the acts, he reports that the police fired tear gas at a protest in the
Plaza Murillo, on Monday during a night watch, in a place with volunteers that
came from the countryside to protest. He has a wound in his leg that keeps him
from walking.
He counts as available proof images published on the Facebook of Bolivia 365 and
the Facebook of entretenete.com.
The victim was wounded by gunshots from the police on November 11th. He is
supported by his family because the wound in his arm keeps him from working. He
did not participate in any protest. He suffered mistreatment in the hospital, and was
hospitalized for seven (7) days. He had to buy the items for the operation.
Upon being consulted, he relates that on November 11th at 9:30 he left his house
to buy medicine, walking five blocks around the traffic. By Avenida Juan Pablo
Segundo, the police were firing tear gas. He tried to pass through to get to his
house. Suddenly they began to fire, people started falling, a bullet hit him in the
arm, and he panicked and fled. Nearby people answered his calls for help, they
made a tourniquet and brought him to the hospital, where saw many wounded
people. He was treated poorly. The bullet passed through his wrist and exited
through his radius, destroying the bone. He spent seven (7) days in the hospital.
He had to buy a plate costing 7000 bolivianos and due to his injury he cannot work.
He has damaged nerves and cannot move his fingers. The doctors threatened to
have him arrested. They had intended to present a report and denied him it.
He presents as proof photos of the wounds on his arm, a receipt of the plate to
replace the damaged piece of bone, receipts of medications, an x-ray image,
impatient papers, a letter written by the victim, and photos.
In addition, counted as witnesses are three (3) companions who were shot on the
same day, who stayed with him in the Hospital Holandés.
The victim is nineteen (19) years old. He suffered a wound on the left thigh from a
firearm projectile on November 19th. He was admitted to the Hospital Boliviano
Holandés and the Hospital Agramont.
He counts as available proof medical history from the Hospital Boliviano

Holandés.
The victim is a woman. She suffered a wound in the hand from a firearm projectile
while she was holding a cell phone close to her head (date not provided). She did
not participate in the protests. The medical attention was deficient. She had to
endure heightened costs to surgically reconstruct her hand. She was interrogated
by police while she was in the hospital.
In relation to the acts she related that she has a salchipapas stand in front of
Estanka. In the morning, she and her husband decided to go and buy supplies for
the stand. The situation was calm. They left at 11:00 in the morning. There, they
heard of the presence of helicopters and were warned of military presence in the
area, in the door of the business in front of the entrance. They decided to return
home, concerned by the situation. Her sister called her on the phone. After talking
for a few seconds, she felt a burning in her hand, and her husband told her to go to
a medical center. She felt a very strong pain and began to see blood.
From there they went to the health center in the district of Panorámica. The doctor
that attended to her she knew personally, because she worked at the community
health center she always went to. She got an x-ray and was notified that there was
a foreign object in her hand, or at least she had fragments of an object in her hand.
She was told that she seemed to have a pellet wound, or a bullet wound. They had
to transfer her to another hospital, in order to be able to remove the object. The
ambulance was delayed. In the hospital, her hand was finally operated on. They
found three destroyed bones, and in order to repair them they had to take out part
of her hip, in order to make implants. The cost of the care was a massive issue.
The medications they had covered, but she needs a platelet to reconstruct her
hand that costs 5000 bolivianos that she does not have. She says at some point
somebody interviewed her, she did not know who it was. In that moment, she
spoke on the telephone and answered “yes colonel”, with what could have been a
group of police officers. They made her sign something, but they did not leave a
copy or anything. Also, she remembers that while she was in postoperative care,
she heard the surgeon say: “Those protestors, that for 20 bolivianos choke off or
barricade, and afterwards we have to save them and make miracles”. She also
remembers that a cleaning employee told her that if she was from Senkata, when
they discharged her the police would be waiting.
He was wounded by a bullet on November 19th, fired by the army. A student and
athlete, due to the injury he cannot return to competition. His medical attention was
deficient. He was interrogated by police personnel while he was staying in the
hospital. He assures that the nurse that helped him was disciplined and arrested.
In relation with the denounced acts he related that on Tuesday, November 19th he
was at home. He left his house around 16:00. His house was located close to
Senkata. He met with his mother, but he decided to stay a while longer, on the
pedestrian bridge. He arrived around 16:30 and was shot around 17:00. A man
helped him. There was a nurse that aided him and gave him medical attention. He
helped him and brought him to a house. He was given medication. He felt close to
passing out, and at the same time the ambulance arrived to bring him to the
hospital. They brought him to the Hospital Korea. He stayed two nights, and the
doctor told him that he could not take out the bullets. This was on the 20th or 21st.
The following day he went to his house. Because they could not take out the
bullets, they went to look for another hospital. They told him that he could go to
another hospital, a private one. In the IRENE (public hospital) they conducted
some studies, took tomographic images and told him that “they had to inform the
police”. For this reason, he had to go to the Hospital Japonés.
When four (4) plainclothes policemen asked him what he had to say, because
according to what they said to him, he was being taken to San Pedro Prison. They
threatened to arrest him. There he began crying. The policemen were standing in
the lobby and they told him “Blame your president. Tell him that he sent for them
and they told him no, because nobody sent for him, nobody, was in place
watching.”
His mother the police also attempted to arrest, but she told the police that her
health was bad, and the police thought that she was also wounded and let her go.
On November 28th, they told him that they could not take out the bullet. The
doctors told him that he would be able to do everything, that they were not going to
have problems, that nobody was going to see him in the hospital, that they could
have interviewed his hospital roommate. It was clear that he was not hit by a pellet,
but a bullet. There are studies, there are radiographic and tomographic images,
that the hospital has in its possession.
Asked if he has contact with the nurse that helped him, he says no. But he knows
that they detained him, and that they have him in jail. That there is a video making
rounds, and he has been identified in the video (there is a photo of the video).
Another roommate gave him various important information: That he remembers

that the nurse told them that they have to insist that they were bullets, not pellets.
Another woman adds that the nurse has been sentenced to thirty years in jail.
He affirms that he fears arrest. They do not have any legal developments. His
studies and sports worry him. He wants to return to competition, because every
game pays 100 bolivianos, so if he is no longer able to compete, he will lose a
significant amount of money. In college they told him that his mother has to request
a certificate.
The victim was wounded by a bullet in the foot (no date provided). He did not
actively participate in the protests.
He asserts that he was watching the place when shots rang out, and he received a
bullet in his foot. He presents as proof photos of the wounds.

The victim suffered a firearm wound (no date given). He was insufficiently cared for
at the Hospital Japonés. Finally, the Red Cross assisted him.
In respect to the acts, the interviewed person expresses that his ex-wife called him
from La Planta, a narrow entrance to La Chocada, and the soldiers came there. His
brother came from the area in which they were previously and a bullet hit his right
foot. He went to the Hospital Japonés and received three (three) stitches. Later he
was discharged from the hospital and sought aid from the Red Cross.
The IACHR also made reference to an unspecified quantity of people that

received wounds as a consequence of acts of violence occurring in Bolivia.
According to the main body of the OAS it clearly exceeds 800 people and it the
final count will be much higher when they finish completing the lists of victims of
the past few weeks. It is also expressed that:
● Many of these victims had been wounded by the Police and Armed Force in
the course of acts of repression against marches and gatherings, such as
beatings, gunshots, tear gases or overwhelming force. This figure includes that
people who were wounded during the Sacaba and Senkata massacres.
● Many of the wounded people have received some degree of medical care
from different inpatient and health centers, and many remain hospitalized to this
day.
● They visited some of these people in hospitals in El Alto and Cochabamba,

directly observing the gravity of their wounds and the victim’s worries over the
costs of medical attention at their expense.
● They also received information according to which a high quantity of wounded
people do not have access to health services, especially those who are in
police custody.
● The wounded people and their family members recurringly expressed their
concern over not having the money to pay the cost of medication, exams, and
treatments that are not covered by any kind of insurance and whose payment
depends on the continuity of their respective services.
Sexual Crimes
From the interviews with witnesses and women’s organizations, the delegation
took notice of the perpetration of sexual assault against women as part of the
repression brought forth by members of the armed forces and police.
In this chapter it is fundamental to bear in mind that even though no women are
officially listed as dead in the Senkata Massacre, as in the reported cases the
theory of disappearance could be considered as a separate issue. Furthermore,
according to the women's’ organizations that visited the procession in El Alto, more
witnesses exist that observed rape of cadavers and related the existence of direct
victims of sexual assault. Those witnesses and direct victims were not able to
report their stories due to subjected threats, fear, and humiliation.
Sexual violence as part of state terrorism is an identified reality not only in the
region but in conflicts throughout the world. In this context, they are the women
who in addition to suffering illegal detentions and torture, are victims of a
vulnerability aggravated by their gender and race. The violations and other sexual
attacks are utilized by forces of the State as strategies to control and impose
power.
Sexual crimes were the object of study and analysis in the inter-American system
of protection of human rights in recent years. Thus, the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights issued in regards to sexual violence in two reports:
(i) Report on Haiti in 1995: where it is sustained that acts of violence against
women qualify as crimes against humanity used as weapons to inflict terror; (ii)
Report on Peru in 1996: in where, after defining rape as “all acts of physical and
mental abuse perpetrated as an act of violence”, it was qualified as a form of
torture.
In parallel, the IACHR has recognized the use of sexual violence against as a
repressive weapon of social control forcibly used against members of ethnic
communities or groups. In this context, it sustains that sexual violence has been
used in armed conflicts as a symbolic way of humiliating the opposing party or as a
way of punishment and repression. In the “Case of the Female Victims of
Sexual Torture in Atenco v. Mexico” the Court “(...) has stressed that the
usage of state power to violate the rights of women in an internal conflict, in
addition to impacting them in a direct form, can have the objective of causing
an effect in society through these violations and giving a message or lesson,
since the consequences of sexual violence usually go further than the
victim”(10).
This has already been a pronouncement on the part of international tribunals. The
perception of the gravity of these acts was made visible by the work carried out by
the International Ad Hoc Penal Tribunals for Rwanda and the ex-Yugoslavia, who
depicted, investigated, and judged the acts of violence based on gender and
sexual orientation, marking an important step in the fight against the impunity of
crimes based on gender.
In particular, it fits to refer to the case “Prosecutor v. Akayesu” of the International

Penal Tribunal for Rwanda, considered a milestone, when it was rased as the
primary international concern to recognize violation and sexual violence as
constituent acts of genocide, defining in a broad form rape as physical invasion of
a sexual nature, and establishing that forced nudity qualifies as a form of inhumane
treatment.
The sexual crimes committed in those contexts should be considered crimes

against humanity and thus should be considered in all legal effects. In this sense,
the resolution of the IACHR in the case “Gelman v. Uruguay” i s relevant as for
the first time the violence generated against kidnapped women during State
terrorism is analyzed and qualified as a crime against humanity. (11)
In the case of “Campo Algodonero v. The United Mexican States”, the IACHR
establishes the responsibility of the State in “having remained indifferent in the
face of a chronic situation of violence… before the existence of a culture of
discrimination against women”. According to the Court, the State is responsible
for acts committed by individuals taking into account of the guarantor in respect to
risks of violence based on gender, according to Article 7 of the Inter-American
Convention to Prevent, Sanction, and Eradicate Violence against Women “Belém
do Pará”.
In this sense, the international and inter-American jurisprudence presents as a

turning point in the treatment of sexual crimes as crimes against humanity, noting
only some dissent at the moment of specifying their classification: some decisions
or opinions postulated their status as crimes against autonomous humanity, and
others regarded them a form of torture.
Identified Case N° 1
The claimant refers to the acts of the Senkata Massacre, not being able to identify
any victims. She, as a volunteer paramedic and caregiver, was witness to these
acts. In her testimony she highlights the lack of medical attention to wounded
people, humiliations and indignities, furthermore she reports as a witness to rape
committed by military forces against two dead women, whose bodies remain
missing to this day. It is fundamental to highlight that no women’s names appear in
the official list of dead in the Senkata Massacre. Furthermore she expresses
having seen military forces throw bodies from helicopters in flight.
She is a high school student. The interviewee and her daughter have received
death threats from police and civil police. She was interviewed with her face
covered and her body trembling.
Description of the acts:
Tuesday at dawn: s he was at a vigil in the San Francisco Church so that the
following day the marches would continue, that night they began to fire gas. They
burnt tires, she observed helicopters flying. She went to her house to sleep.
Tuesday 9:00: s he receives urgent calls that informed her that they were firing gas,
she stayed with her daughter sleeping, she got up at 11:00 and went out to search
for medicine.
She relates that in the Hospital de Senkata 79 they refused to take in wounded
people without the police accompanying them. Some women went carrying stones
to insist that they attend to the wounded. She attended to them in the street, with
vinegar and other common items.
Then she, together with people that were aiding and transferring the wounded, she
put white ribbons on her head and carried white flags while achieving their mission.
Part of her trip was from the Senkata plant to the headquarters and the San
Francisco church but they also went to search for wounded in other places. She
highlights that the distance from the headquarters to the church is four blocks.
She expresses that throughout this trip the soldiers continued firing bullets and
gas, furthermore she was beaten, humiliated, insulted, and violated. She reports
the presence of snipers that shot from the balconies while they recovered the
wounded. A young man was shot in the leg, dragged by his hair, and shoved into a
helicopter. The claimant states that they left a body behind in the headquarters and
when they went to the plant with a doctor, they pushed them and said to them,
“What are you doing here? Fucking Indian, we’ll put a bullet in you”.
She relates that as they were loading a wounded person onto a stretcher, a soldier
pushed a señora de pollera that was helping to lift the wounded man which caused
the wounded man, a man with a large frame, to fall on his face. They told her that if
she kept searching for wounded or dead people “they were going to kill her”.
When doctors came from other hospitals, they demanded money for the help they
provided.
She relates the presence of a minibus used to transport the wounded but the
military forces did not let it pass. In turn, she also relates the existence of a minibus
where they had loaded five bodies, but she maintains that this minibus and its
driver did not appear.
The claimant expresses that in these trips she observed that some soldiers lifted
and carried away, among others, a woman that was in the street with her shop
stand (she highlights that she was a witness when they picked her up). She
searched for her and she was not in the Senkata plant. They told her that they
were throwing the wounded into the Callejón de Achocalla. It was three hours after
seeing her last that she saw her body in this alley with clear signs of sexual abuse,
she was found naked with both legs broken, she was dead. Despite this, she saw
that two soldiers continued raping her, forming a circle with the woman in the
middle. There was another woman in the same condition.
She also saw the soldiers throwing bodies from helicopters, throwing them in
midair flight. She saw four bodies in the alley that were exploded, with shattered
heads.
She describes the Bolivian military forces as “gringos” that spoke Spanish and
wore Bolivian military uniforms but on the side had the acronym “EEUU”.
Repressive patriarchal practices directed against women

and dissidents in Bolivia
1. Racist and misogynist violence prior to

the coup
From 2017 the 21F Movement was formed, “Bolivia Said No”, a group that
questioned the renomination of Evo Morales for a fourth presidential term. Through
this movement they carried out protests called “civic blockages”, where they
committed racist attacks specifically against indigenous women, Aymara and
Quechua mujeres de pollera.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2063245140369001
https://www.facebook.com/paginasiete/photos/p7informa-ind%C3%ADgenas-
chiquitanos-llegan-a-la-ciudad-de-la-paz-para-denunciar-agre/2243519429025
784/
2. Escalation of racist violence
2.1 Armed groups/paramilitaries
Amidst the immediate protests after the elections on October 20th of this year, the
armed paramilitary groups “Unión Juvenil Cruceñista” and “Resistencia Juvenil
Cochala” took stage, originating from Santa Cruz and Cochabamba and coming to
operate in the whole country. They raped mujeres de pollera, Aymara and
Quechua women, and female authorities and leaders of MAS. Their form of
operating looked to instill terror in the civil population: they threw firecrackers, they
moved in motorcycle gangs of dozens of men and they hit women with sticks and
baseball bats. They threw tear gas and they acted as snipers, firing from rooftops
against protests.
● 21.10.2019 A “Comunidad Ciudadana” member beats a mujer de pollera.
https://www.boliviaentusmanos.com/noticias/bolivia/347343/militante-de-cc-golpea
- e-insulta-a-una-mujer-de-pollera-en-un-choque-de-frentes-en-la-paz.html
● 29.10.2019 Two mujeres de pollera are assaulted by
motorcyclists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI3lBiDoAKQ
● 7. 11.2019 A march of the women of the Bartolina Sisa Federation in

Cochabamba is attacked by motorcyclists and gassed by police, they also
had children.
https://youtu.be/VnYHfdpl4mA
● 7.11.2019 The mayor of Vinto, Cochabamba, Patricia Vera, is beaten, her
hair was cut, she was urinated on, gasoline was poured on her to burn her,
red paint was thrown on her, she was forced to walk barefoot to the plaza,
forced to kneel down and humiliated. They accused her of being responsible
for the death of Limbert Guzmán who was allegedly beaten by sticks by
MAS activists. The forensic report showed that Limbert died in an explosion
when he detonated homemade weapons against organizations of women
and indigenous people that were marching in defense of their right to vote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asGCagwbDH
A
3. Kidnappings, hostages as an object of political

pressure
On the 9th and 10th of November, after the police riot, the burning of the houses of
MAS authorities to force them to resign began. In the cases of male authorities,
they took hostage their mothers, daughters, wives, and threatened to beat and
rape them if they did not resign, a clear usage of the women of their family as
pieces of extortion.
● 10.11.2019 The wife and daughter of Teodoro Mamani were kidnapped,

brought to the plaza, beaten and humiliated. They forced them to call the
MAS deputy and campesino leader to demand that he resign.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=5006919171872
61
● 9.11.2019 They burn the house of Minister of Mining Navarro and assault
his mother and his nephew in order to force him to resign.
https://www.lostiempos.com/actualidad/pais/20191110/renuncia-ministro-min
eria- afirma-que-queman-su-casa
● 10.11.2019 The brother of the president of the Chamber of Deputies was

brutally beaten, they attempted to rape his 14 year-old daughter, they
destroyed and burnt down their house, in order to force Victor Borda to
resign. They also assaulted Borda’s mother.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o_elvRigGg
4. The usage of women to instill terror
Between December 8th to 18th, armed groups instilled terror in different cities and
communities, there were burnings and lootings, as they acted accompanied and
protected by the police. At the same time, they unleashed an unproven news
campaign about the rape of two young female students from Sucre in Vila Vila, and
they shared numerous audio recordings on WhatsApp of alleged residents claiming
that masistas or comuneros ransacked their homes and raped their daughters,
false audio that deepened violence against indigenous men and women and MAS
activists.
5. Illegal detentions, accusations, and processings
Hundreds of detained people were locked and tortured in police and/or judicial
cells, having been unjustly accused for crimes of sedition, terrorism, and criminal
association.
However, the members of the delegation could not access an official list of arrested
women, or men, or who has been translated to jails. Taken note of was the case of
two women who were transferred to the Cárcel de Obrajes, one of them indigenous
from Cochabamba. Also taken note of was that on November 6th, a trans man was
arrested who carried an ID card with his new identity, and upon being looked over
by the police, they demanded his female ID. D.M.M. was tortured and forced to
confess to the accusation of terrorism for carrying a wiphala and stones. The police
searches were acts of sexual and verbal abuse.
6. Women and the

massacres
Massacre in Chasquipampa, an area south
of La Paz
Between the 10th and 12th of November in Chasquipampa, armed groups

terrorized the zone, forcing many women to undress and threatening to rape them,
finally on November 12th, they fired gas and bullets killing three young women. On
these episodes there does not yet exist information because the women of the
community continue to be threatened not to report, however we were made aware
of this massacre by one of the women who reported to Parlasur.
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/234008-bolivia-duele-por-sus-muertes-y-sus-heridas
Massacre in Sacaba,
Cochabamba
The women, wives and daughters were threatened not to report and it is they who
now seek cures for their wounds and justice for the murdered.
Massacre in
Senkata
The night before the Senkata massacre the 20 districts of La Paz held a vigil in the
Murillo Plaza calling for the resignation of Añez, around midnight while they slept
they were fired upon by tear gas. Women and children fainted due to the gas.
https://www.facebook.com/BOLIVIADePieNuncaDeRodillas/videos/707991456351
733
/UzpfSTEwMDAzNTUyNTgyNjA5MToxNzU5NzEyNjAyNjM3MzQ/?q=gasifican%2
0en%2
0plaza%20murillo%20vigilia%20de%2020%20provincias&epa=SEARCH_BOX
Even though in the official names of the dead no women are counted, various
reports tell of a mujer de pollera and a 12 year-old girl who were killed and their
bodies disappeared.
https://www.facebook.com/feminismo.comunitario.Antipatriarcal/videos/5385
1175
0322484/?q=feminismo%20comunitario%20antipatriarcal%20nos%20han%20
matad o&epa=SEARCH_BOX
https://ww.youtube.com/watch?v=jRs3PQrcD
oA
Sexual violence
There exists testimonies about the rape of women, but the victims are not able to
report them due the the fear and humiliation they were subjected to. In one case
the denunciation was carried out by the father of a woman, and in another case the
woman’s husband. Furthermore, various testimonies of female residents of
Senkata take account of rape perpetrated by police against the body of a dead
woman.
Threats not to report
Women were the ones who received the most threats not to report and accept the
arrangements imposed by the government.
Threats in the hospitals, treatments, expenses and

accounts
Female residents of Senkata have told us of the threats that the wounded people
of Senkata receive to not speak in exchange for treatment, many of them have
denied seeing bullets and having a forensic certificate on what happened.
The word that is always in doubt, the word of women
In Bolivia the only recognized institution for the defense of human rights is the
Public Defense Office chosen by Congress, although its capacity to take action is
reduced.
The Permanent Assembly of Human Rights (APDH) is divided, its president and
most of their members support the civic committees and armed groups, some
members of the APDH in the city of El Alto have split and are supporting the
denunciations.
It has been observed that there exists machismo when it comes to receiving
complaints when it comes to women. They often ask them if they are exaggerating
or lying, for these reasons some women of Senkata have stopped complaining.
Denunciations received from Santa
Cruz
Even though the delegation concentrated their work of receiving denunciations

and interviews on November 29th and 30th in the city of El Alto, however, through
different methods (telephones, electronic and personal interviews) they have
received numerous declarations that give an account of different acts occurring in
the City of Santa Cruz.
Within the framework of the 21-day strike decreed by the so-called Civic
Committee of Santa Cruz between October and November in 2019 we could
identify the following forms of intimidation:
• Inability to drive and vehicular attacks,

• Inability to access establishments of health
• Closure of schools
• Insults and attacks against poor and indigenous
people
• Threats and attacks against MAS
representatives
Not the department government, nor the governorship of Santa Cruz de la

Sierra fulfilled their function of safeguarding the integrity of the population, in
fact collaborating with the Civic Committee that it bestowed with de facto
power.
Overview:
1. Forced closure of stores due to threats on the part of the Civic Committee. A
concrete case is of the threat uttered by a Civic Committee member to the store
“Chikens Kingdom” reproaching them for having the store open and
commanding them to close it in 15 minutes saying that if they don’t close it “he
will not be responsible for what happens”. (Provided on video is “Threat to
Chikens Kingdom - VID-20191027-WA0081”).
2. Insults and attacks against campesina women. Concretely indicated is the

case of a mujer de pollera who was robbed by a man while various men and
women repeatedly shouted “fucking collas” and a man ranted “they come and
infest this land”. (Provided on video is “Attack against mujer de pollera -
VID-20191026-WA0032”).
3. Inability to move about and the checking of phones. Reported is the blockade
of movement on the part of the Civic Committee that forces motorcyclists to
stop and display their phones and only allows them to continue after forcing
them to block the Facebook page of Evo Morales and denounce the page as
“violent”. (Provided on video is “Checking of phones - VID-20191104-
WA0112”).
4. Burning of homes in the neighborhood of Cofadena, in the city of Montero, for

the refusal to join the “civic” strike. (Provided on video is “Burning of homes in
Cofadena - VID-20191101-WA0123”).
It is essential to indicate that during the 21-day strike promoted by the Civic
Committee of Santa Cruz, and the Ríos de Pie NGO, with clear connection to the
US, they carried out a symbolic capture and closure of a TV channel, threatening
its workers.
(www.primeralinea.info/ong-que-promueve-golpe-de-estado-toma-instalaciones-
de- bolivia-tv-en-santa-cruz/).
Reparations for victims of repression
In an agreement between the de facto government and the Bolivian Parliament, the
Exceptional and Transitional Law for the Realization of National and Subnational
Elections was passed. Among the points of agreement is a commitment to address
the situation of the families of the dead and wounded due to the violence of the
coup.
The families that lost their loved ones in the Senkata have posed the demand of
justice and full compensation to the government that instructed and ordained the
military by Supreme Decree to use firearms against protesters.
The demands of the families posed:
1. The identification and legal punishment of the killers of their family members,
the soldiers, police, and/or authorities responsible for the massacres.
2. The payment of a lifelong grant to all of the families of the victims, after
economic assessment. Considered as reference is the minimum wage
established by the Ministry of Labor, the income or bonus being progressively
increased according to the Law.
3. Programs for the access of scholarships for the orphans of victims.
4. Programs for the rescheduling of bank debts or the cancellation of bank

debts by the Government if it is impossible for families to cancel their debts.
5. Medical attention and providing of medication to all wounded victims until

their complete recovery.
6. Providing of aid from the National Food Production Support Company

(EMAPA) until the recovery of the victims.
Through Supreme Decree No 4100, the de facto president authorized the granting
of compensation to the family members of the dead and covers the costs of
medical attention of people that were wounded as a product of violence in the
country between October 21st and November 24th of 2019. (Art. 1)
The cited decree authorizes different compensations for the families of the victims
killed by “products of violent action”, a one-time payment of 7225 USD and for the
payment of medical costs for public and private establishments and short-term
social security and/or acquiring medical services, medications, and medical
supplies for the wounded, they have established that they will give a maximum of
650,289 USD to the entire affected population.
These reparations are far from satisfying the demands of the families of the
victims, who have lost in many cases the principal providers of income in their
household and do not assure any attention to orphans.
The Decree reveals its central objective in art. 4, section II, that establishes: “The
family members of the dead and wounded will be deemed to have been
compensated before any international authority once the compensations and
reparations are active.” I t is intended to condition the legitimate access to
reparations on renouncing the demand of justice for those responsible for state
repression.
Opposing national and international jurisprudence, the de facto government
intends to silence victims and their families, guaranteeing their impunity and
granting amnesty for the committed crimes.
OTHER VIOLATIONS OF CONFIRMED

RIGHTS: cases of Argentine citizens
The case of “Sebastián

Moro”
The Argentine journalist Sebastián Moro resided in La Paz, Bolivia, from February
2018 to November 16th, 2019, when he died at the city’s Clínica Rengel,
supposedly due to a “heart attack”, caused by reasons that are being
investigated.
For more than a year he acted as the editor-in-chief of the weekly journal “Prensa
Rural”, he produced and conducted different radio shows on “Radio Comunidad”,
and also he editorialized and updated the online version of “Prensa Rural”
(www.prensarural.com.bo), which is currently hacked and non-functioning since
November 10th, along with the radio station and the newspaper.
The three pieces of media belong to the Trade Union Confederation of

Campesino Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB). They served as a central
communication body, especially the journal “Prensal Rural”, between policies
promoted by the government of Evo Morales and sectors largely allied with their
project “of change”: the campesinos and indigenous people.
Furthermore, Sebastián worked to produce daily and weekly papers for different
community and alternative media outlets in Latin America, especially in Argentina
where his work in Radio Caput, La Leñera, Revista Digital La Quinta Pata, and
many more papers is highlighted. After the general elections on October 20th
carried out in the Plurinational State of Bolivia, he began to work as a special
columnist of “Página 12”, covering, writing about, and analyzing the sociopolitical
course emerged through the post-electoral conflict and the crisis provoked by
extreme far-right groups in Bolivia. The last note he managed to send to the
Argentine press was on Saturday, November 9th in the afternoon, where he
denounced the launch of the coup that would overthrow Evo Morales the
following day. Hours before, the newspaper had updated its site informing of the
progress of the police riots that resolved to lash out against democracy in Bolivia.
The last news of Sebastián alive was on this same Saturday on November 9th in
the evening through telephone and WhatsApp communications with his family
and relatives in Argentina. In the first hours of November 10th they lost all
communication with the journalist, who had stopped responding on his phone.
Alarmed and desperate due to this situation, his family managed to contact a
relative in Bolivia and get them to enter his apartment. When the apartment was
entered at noon on Sunday, November 10th, Sebastián was found in a state of
“semi-unconsciousness” and urgently hospitalized in the Clínica Rengel.
From this moment his health began a grave process of deterioration that left him
in a “deep coma” for which he remained in “intensive therapy” until he died on
Saturday, November 16th at 00:00.
From the urgent arrival of his sister Penélope Moro in La Paz, on the night of
November 11th, in order to focus on his care, she found on Sebastián’s body
signals inconsistent with a “cardiovascular arrest”, such as internal and external
wounds, contusions and polytraumatic injuries. They are recorded in the “Clinical
History” that today is in the hands of relevant lawyers and forensic doctors.
According to specialists, this is why the death of Sebastián Moro in the process of
the Coup d’Etat is “extremely doubtful”, his bruises indicate so far that he suffered
an attack prior to the long agony that ended in his death.
In addition to this situation, work items were never found that Sebastián would not
lose easily: his jacket identifying him as a CSUTCB journalist, his audio recorder
and a notebook.
It is important to contextualize the case of Sebastián Moro within the targeting of

journalists, social leaders, public officials and their families on the part of
opposition mobs that took place principally between the 8th and 10th of
November in order to secure the overthrow of Evo Morales’ government.
Between Friday the 8th and the morning of November 9th, the headquarters
community media that belonged to the “6 Federations of Cochabamba” were set
on fire and razed by task forces.
The same Saturday, November 9th, the director general of the media of the
CSUTCB in La Paz, José Aramayo, Sebastián Moro’s boss, suffered a lynching
attempt at the entrance of the headquarters in Miraflores and was tied to a tree by
civilians allied with the coup supporters. Afterwards, he was detained by several
hours by the Special Anti-Crime Force accused of “transporting dynamite” and
“making molotov cocktails” in this environment. His cell phone was taken for two
hours.
The night of Saturday, November 9th, other public media, like Red Patria Nueva,
Bolivia TV, Canal Abya Yala, among others, were tapped and interrupted by
police and paramilitary forces. Hours before, they have suffered threats through
telephone communications that are of public knowledge, as they have been
spread throughout the internet.
The media of the CSUTCB were raided on more than one occasion. The first
time, it took place at noon on Saturday, November 9th. In fact, Sebastián Moro
was a witness to this act. That morning as he went to his office to finish the
edition of “Prensa Rural” he noticed the presence of a group of violent people
trying to enter the headquarters. From this moment, joining his coworkers, he
resolved to work from underground. Many of them continued working under this
condition, others searched for asylum in other countries. Sebastián did not
choose to do this.
Once the journalist’s remains were repatriated to his country, his family, advised
by lawyers specialized in crimes against humanity, made the corresponding
complaint from Mendoza to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. It
has been nurtured by the lawyer Rodolfo Yanzón, who also reported the case in
the Office of Rapporteur of the Freedom of Expression of said body.
In its preliminary declaration on the situation in Bolivia, the Delegation considered

in its Point 8 referring to the “manifest restriction of freedom of the press” that the
“case of the Argentine journalist Sebastián Moro is especially serious”.
For its part, in a press release published on December 11th the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights included in its preliminary report on the situation in
Bolivia in the context of a grave institutional crisis the death of Sebastián Moro in
the section “Attacks on the Press”.
To conclude, we highlight that Sebastián Moro fulfilled a double role of risk

through his committed action as a journalist: he informed and warned about the
pre-coup events within La Paz and the rest of Bolivia, as well as Argentina, where
the largest Bolivian migrant community in the world resides.
Case of “Facundo Molares

Schoenfeld”
1.- Outline of the case.
Background.
Facundo Molares Schoenfeld is an Argentine citizen, born in San Miguel

(Province of Buenos Aires), 44 years old, who went to Bolivia to carry out
photojournalistic work for the digital publication Centenario
(https://revistacentenario.com) and had planned to return to his country between
the end of October and the beginning of November in 2019.
By the end of the month of October, Facundo Morales told his father, Hugo
Morales, via WhatsApp that he had gotten sick, he had had a fever for days, he
didn’t know if he had dengue or malaria, and he was being treated.
His father lost communication with Facundo for more than a week, until he
received an anonymous call, informing him that his son’s condition had worsened
and that he was going to be transferred to a clinic or to the Hospital Japonés in
Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
Faced with this situation, Mr. Hugo Molares decided to urgently travel to Bolivia,
together with his wife, arriving in Santa Cruz de la Sierra around 20:00 on
November 12th. Immediately he went to the “Hospital Universitario Municipal
Japonés” located on Av. Dr. Lucas Saucedo, Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
Upon arrival at the hospital, Mr. Hugo Morales found his son in a coma with
mechanical breathing assistance. There he was informed that his son Facundo
did not have recent wounds of any type and a radiographic image was displayed
showing the presence of various objects similar to lead buckshot lodged in his
head, informing him that they are old and they do not pose a danger in the
moment according to a consultation between the doctor and a neurosurgeon.
They did not find wounds, bleeding, entry points, or bruises caused by the pellets.
The reason for his state and later hospitalization was acute kidney failure. The Dr.
Víctor Hugo Zambrana of the Hospital Japonés de Santa Cruz, in dialogue with
the Notivisión television channel of Bolivia he affirmed that: “he has acute renal
failure, he has septic shock, he has acute pulmonary edema and the possibility of
lead poisoning is also being considered and also the possibility of Hantavirus, all
of these diagnoses make the patient’s condition very serious”.
2.- Irregular detention. Inexistence of sufficient legal charges. Violations of the art.
8.2.b of the Pact of San José de Costa Rica.
According to the situation of public knowledge that the Plurinational State of

Bolivia is going through, and due to the situations of open social conflict with a
great quantity of wounded and even murdered people, upon the arrival of
Facundo Morales at the Hospital Japonés they informed the security forces. Once
Facundo was identified, it was established that he had belonged to the Fuerzas
Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and due to this, they ordered his
arrest. It fits to highlight that Facundo did not have any arrest warrant on
Colombian soil and as part of the peace process, the organization to which he
belonged laid down its arms and joined the institutional political life of said
country.
The criminal case which he is charged is processed before the Third Criminal
Court of Montero, under No 1902373 and overseen by the Justices VIERA,
JUSTINIANO, and ARTEAGA. The acts he is charged with are “homicide,
criminal association and public instigation to commit crimes”, accusing him of the
homicide of two people within the confrontations that occurred in Santa Cruz de la
Sierra between civilians and with the intervention of security forces.
Regarding the proof that they used to arrest him, it consists of the conversations
that Facundo Morales had with his father, where he informed him that he is in
Santa Cruz de la Sierra and that he had been present in popular demonstrations
where clashes occurred between different groups.
To this they add his past as a member of FARC and the wounds (of an old date)
that he possesses on his body. It should be highlighted that in the criminal
investigation had people identified on photos carrying firearms and firing during
protests; but none of these people are Facundo Morales. Furthermore, Facundo
arrived at the hospital with an infection and renal failure, and was hospitalized 11
days after the fact that he was charged. In short, there is no specific charge, no
specific human behavior, and description of a specific and detailed fact from
which one can defend oneself.
Furthermore on November 29th, the hearing on precautionary measures held by

the Second Court of Criminal Instruction of Montero, whose incumbent is Dr.
Roger Salvatierra. The trial took place with the presence of the Judicial
Commission formed by Adán Arteaga, Víctor Hugo Justiniano and José Carlos
Viera, in addition to a commission formed by five private attorneys that sponsored
the victim and the Public Defense lawyers.
The judge resolved after the trial, that Facundo Morales Schoenfeld was “a
present danger for the victim and society”, and therefore resolved to arrest him as
a precaution. Although the Defense insisted on his delicate state of health (with a
severe renal insufficiently), the Judge in the first instance ordered his detention on
the Rehabilitation Center “Santa Cruz – Palmasola”, since this jail has a Center
for Health Care (although it is not highly complex).
In order to make this decision, the Judge did not use the reports of the specialist
doctors that were attending to Facundo, since they advised against his transfer
due to his delicate state of health, but rather the opinion of an external doctor sent
by the Court to the hospital, who only saw Facundo once and contrary to the
advice of the medical team in charge, signed the discharge of the patient, which
led to his immediate transfer to the prison in Palmasola.
Nevertheless, some days after they ordered a new transfer, this time to the
“Chonchocoro” Maximum-Security Prison in the city of El Alto in La Paz. That jail
does not have minimal sanitary conditions nor does it possess a Health Center in
order to be able to guarantee elementary attention for a condition as delicate as
that of Facundo Morales.
It should be highlighted that Facundo needs constant specialized attention,

controls and studies of different kinds and even requires hemodialysis treatment.
The political motivation of the detention of Facundo Morales is clearly evident in

the declarations of Colonel Gutiérrez, interim director of the FELCC of Santa Cruz
who maintained before the media that “I learned of one admission as an “NN” to
the Foianini private clinic, Chuquisaca 737, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, on
11/11/19. Later he was referred to the Hospital Japonés, where he was identified
as an Argentine citizen and a FARC member, he remains in a coma in a hospital
in the city, due to a confrontation between supporters of Evo Morales and civic
groups in the city of Montero, in which two members of civic groups died. He
arrived at a hospital on Monday the 11th and, due to the nature of his state, the
security protocol was activated. Morales was identified when his parents arrived
from Argentina to visit and gave his name. When making inquiries, officers found
his involvement with FARC.”
But this is not all, it has gone much further, in a press conference the senator who
became de facto Minister of Government, Arturo Murillo, took the political
motivation of the detention of Facundo to grotesque limits, presenting it as a case
of “narcoterrorism” marked as a “conspiracy against America” financed by the
President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro and with local
links with the deposed vice president, Álvaro García Linera.
In short, based on his past as a member of FARC and without a factual grip,
Facundo is accused of currently belonging to an armed group, and of having
been recruited to yield “paramilitary instruction” and intervene in alleged
confrontations. As has been explained, all of these accusations clearly transcend
Facundo’s own person, as the de facto Government used his absurd detention in
order to attempt to incriminate the President of Venezuela in “narcoterrorism” and
politically persecute the deposed Vice President Álvaro García Linera.
However, the reality is that Facundo Morales was admitted to the Hospital with an
acute condition of renal insufficiency, that caused his transfer to intensive care,
being induced into a “pharmacological coma” due to the gravity of his illness. His
admittance, his health condition, and his state have nothing to do with a
confrontation or any conflict, nor is there any evidence that proves in any way the
absurd accusation that was made.
3.- Grave Situation of health. Violations of art. 4.1 of the Pact of San José de
Costa Rica.
It is outlined so far that Mr.Facundo Morales suffers from chronic renal sickness
(whose causes to this date are unknown). His health situation is grave and is
deteriorating rapidly, posing a higher risk to his life as his renal system no longer
functions and the place where he is currently detained does not have conditions
for his healthcare.
Currently the symptoms that accompany his state are nausea, vomiting, loss of
appetite, fatigue, respiratory and cardiac failure, and weakness, problems with
sleep, urinary tract issues, among other multisystemic disorders. This furthermore
has been developing over time, showing evidence that Facundo lacked the
psycho-physical aptitude that would be needed to participate in acts of violence.
Owing to the severe kidney failure that Facundo Morales suffers from, a serious
risk is posed to his life if he is not attended to with haste in a highly complex
medical center by specialized health professionals.
Having in mind the gravity of his sickness, according to what his family has said,
the possibility of a kidney transplant is likely to be evaluated. Evidently the
conditions in which he finds himself detained not only are incompatible with this
type of treatment, but are incompatible with life itself due to his exposed delicate
state of health.
In short, a current violation of the right to life in terms of art. 4.1 of the Pact of San
José de Costa Rica, given that the Bolivian judicial authorities have ordered the
detention of a person with a chronic and terminal delicate state of health (in case
of not acting diligently), in a maximum-security penitentiary establishment that
does not possess a health center of high complexity in order to attend to such a
disease.
4.- Measures carried out to this day.
In relation to the situation of Facundo Morales, Facundo’s father, Hugo Morales

has made arrangements with various human rights bodies, the International Red
Cross, and the Catholic Church.
Furthermore, Mr. Hugo Morales has formally solicited the Inter-American

Commission on Human Rights (CIDH), the adoption of a precautionary measure
under the situation denounced, by request presented on the date of November
23rd of 2019 (Presentation 50540 – Carried measure – CIDH).
It is worth noting that Mr. Hugo Morales was in contact with his son for 15
minutes, since while going to a pharmacy to buy medication recommended by the
doctors of the hospital, he was intercepted together with his wife by a police
vehicle that transferred them to a police unit where they were held for 22 hours,
and freed under the express threat that they get out of Bolivia and never return,
since that would cost them their lives. For any reason, and despite the painful
situation that he is going through, he left Bolivia and carries out all of his
arrangements from Argentina.
Without prejudice to the point, the extremely grave situation in which Facundo
Morales finds himself, in addition to the violation of elementary rights guarantees
by International Treaties on Human Rights, and punctually the American
Convention on Human Rights, summons the urgent intervention of diverse actors
to obtain the respect of the fundamental rights that the Argentine citizen
possesses.
VIOLATIONS OF POLITICAL
RIGHTS
It is worth in the part of the report to stress that the quantity and quality of the
statements collected in the territory, the evidence provided, the publications of
declarations of officials of the de facto government, together with the homemade
videos that circulate, form a political picture of violation of the most elementary
political rights.
Thereon, in a publication named BOOKLET OF JURISPRUDENCE OF THE

INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS No 20: POLITICAL RIGHTS it is
stated: “The Court has established that “in a democratic society the rights and
freedoms inherent to a person, their guarantees and the State of Law constitute a
triad”, in which each component is defined, completes and acquires meaning
depending on the others. In weighing the importance of political rights, the Court
observes that the Convention includes, in its article 27, prohibits its termination and
that of judicial guarantees necessary for their protection.”
In the same sense it continues saying: “This Tribunal has expressed that
“representative democracy is decisive in the entire system in which the Convention
is a part”, and it constitutes “a ‘principle’ reaffirmed by the American states in the
Charter of the OAS, an essential instrument of the Inter-American System”. The
political rights protected in the American Convention, as well as in different
international instruments, favor the strengthening of democracy and political
pluralism.”
It also extends the jurisprudence to the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the

OAS: “In the inter-American system the relation between human rights,
representative democracy and political rights in particular, remained attested to in
the Inter-American Democratic Charter, adopted in the first plenary session on
September 11th, 2001, during the Twenty-Eight Extraordinary Session of the
General Assembly of the Organization of American States. In said instrument it is
indicated that: they are essential elements of representative democracy, among
others, the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; access to power
and its exercise subject to the Rule of Law; the celebration the holding of periodic
elections, fair, free, and based on universal and confidential suffrage as an
expression of the sovereignty of the people; the plural rule of political parties and
organizations; and the separation and independence of political powers (...) “
It insists on linking the political rights with other human rights: “Political rights are
human rights of fundamental importance within the inter-American system that are
closely related to other rights enshrined in the American Convention such as
freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and what, together, makes
democratic play possible. The Court highlights the importance that political rights
have and recalls that the American Convention, in its article 27, prohibits their
suspension and that of the indispensable judicial guarantees for the protection of
them.” (...) “The Court considers that the effective exercise of political rights
constitutes an end in itself and, at the same time, a fundamental means that
democratic societies have to guarantee the other provided human rights in the
Convention.”(...) “The article 23 of the Convention enshrines the rights of
participation in the direction of public matters, to vote, to be elected, and to access
public functions, which must be guaranteed by the State on equal terms. It is
indispensable that the State generates the optimal conditions and mechanisms for
which said political rights can be exercised in an effective form, respecting the
principle of equality and non-discrimination.(...) “The Court understands that, in
conformity with the articles 23, 24, 1.1 and 2 of the Convention, the State has the
obligation to guarantee the enjoyment of political rights, which implies that the
regulation of the exercise of these rights and their application are in accordance
with the principle of equality and non-discrimination, and should adopt the
necessary measures to guarantee their full exercise. S aid obligation to guarantee
is not fulfilled by only the issuance of regulations that formally recognize these
rights, but it requires that the State adopt the necessary measures to guarantee
their full exercise, considering the situation of weakness or helplessness in which
the members of certain social sectors and groups find themselves.”
As can be observed in the quotations ut supra, all jurisprudence values political

rights as as an integral and fundamental part of the democratic system as a whole,
and as has been outlined in the section Chronology of the coup d’etat, i t is
possible to observe the coordinated action of actors of political relevance that
prepared conditions in to first break the democratic order and violate without any
type of concealment, the violation of any political right that allows the restoration of
the democratic system in Bolivia.
The role played by Mesa, Camacho, Añéz, and Murillo among others has been
detailed, at the time of conjuring the coup d’etat and constituting the de facto
government.
We have also demonstrated the leading role that paramilitary groups had and have
like the already mentioned UJC, or the violent and racist “Resistencia Cochala”, or
the gangs that were housed in the University of San Andrés during the days of the
overthrow of Evo Morales, or different task forces that seemed to follow itineraries
explicitly detailed by various de facto Bolivian government officials (such as
Minister Murillo), who carried out and sustained the blocking of streets; they
persecuted, intimidated, kidnapped, and wounded the civil population or social or
political activists; they burned homes, and sowed terror in the Bolivian streets. This
all was carried out under an aesthetic, extremely racist and revanchist discourse
and actions.
This concert of actions, in addition to kidnappings of authorities and/or family

members of masista activists, burnings of homes, threats of death, led the acting
president Evo Morales Ayma to present his resignation and forced him into exile
outside of the country.
But it is appropriate to highlight here the participation of the State Department of

the United States. There are many reports that speak of “officials of the State
Department (headed by Mike Pompeo) credited in the country, like Mariane Scott
and Rolf A. Olson, that have met with senior diplomatic officials from Brazil,
Argentina, and Paraguay.”
(http://nuevaradio.org/mariwim/b2-img/GolpeEstadoContraBoliviaFinal.pdf) in the
period prior to the Coup d’Etat in Bolivia. Just as the positions of the governments
of the cited States, and also of the Trump administration itself not only did not
denounce the institutional and democratic interruption in the country, but in fact
supported it either institutionally or medically.
Subordinate to the strategy of president Trump, the fundamental role the the OAS
played in the Coup d’Etat, through the form of the secretary-general, Luis Almagro.
In the midst of a situation of tension caused by the Bolivian opposition, who did not
want to accept the accept the election results, the Washington-based organization
whose support depends on 60% of the United States, made statements on
Sunday, November 10th where they state the existence of “irregularities” in the
elections (slipping in the idea of electoral fraud), and “recommends” that new
elections be held by a new Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Those statements are
made despite having found 78 errors among the sampling of 33,043 total records).
It merits to highlight that these statements were put forward on the planned date for
the presentation of the report, that was to become public on November 12th.
Almagro issues recklessly, suggesting the holding of new election and canceling of
the previous ones, based on a sampling that they themselves indicate as
insufficient for this conclusion. The president Evo Morales warned Almagro the this
report “is going to set this country on fire”. Clearly this can be proved, as the
report was put forward with the beginning of the coup.
All this action was further supported by the Lima Group, made up of American
presidents allied with the North American regional strategy without any hesitation.
It is also given to point out that on 11/8 other international overseers such as the
Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and the University of Michigan
also carried out surveys, informing that they had not found any signs of fraud. The
webpage was titled: “No Evidence That Bolivian Election Results Were
Affected by Irregularities or Fraud, Statistical Analysis Shows Examination
Finds Tally Sheets Consistent with Evo Morales’s First-Round Victory” For
Immediate Release: November 8, 2019
Those internal and external precedents, they demonstrate that there existed
complicity to achieve the objective of destroying the president Evo Morales and
instituting a de facto government.
During our presence in the country, we could gather an assembly of denunciations
that make it possible to affirm that they have been deployed before the coup and a
set of genocidal practices are presently deployed that seek to intimidate and
impede the political actions of MAS activists, social leaders, and union leaders.
We present an outline of gathered cases:
Reports of incidents that have occurred in the cities of Santa Cruz, Potosí,
La Paz y Sucre
In this repressive context described prior, with dozens of dead, hundreds of

wounded, illegal and arbitrary detentions, practices of torture, inhuman treatments;
the delegation has been able to accredit likewise in the cities of Sucre, Potosí y La
Paz, other forms of intimidation like threats, harassment, persecution of political
leaders, invasions of houses of political leaders, and damages to their property and
personal goods.
As was already stated, the recovered stories and evidence describe a coordinated
action by the police (Potosí), the Army (La Paz, Cochabamba y Santa Cruz de la
Sierra) and task forces, in the situations of persecution and harassment against
political leaders.
a) Outline of the Case of Víctor Hugo

Vásquez Mamani
The MAS Governor of the Autonomous Department of Potosí until his resignation
on the date 11/10/19 produced by intimidation and persecution of him and his
family after the looting and burning of his house by civil groups and paramilitaries
on 11/09/19. Currently his family does not know the whereabouts of the
ex-governor, but they informed the delegation that he is doing well since they have
communicated by telephone. The demand that there be no more political
persecution. The request dissemination of the case and moral and material
reparations as protective measures for the family.
Actions
The family directly reported to the delegation. Both claimants refer that on the 9th
of November, university groups from Oruro, Potosí and Chuquisaca and members
of the PU, gathered in the plaza and after went to the house where Víctor Hugo
Vásquez Mamani and his family lived located on calle Potosí, Vicuña C-D, City of
Oruro. They highlight that the property did not belong to him, but to his uncle Emilio
Ticila Vazquez. Once they arrived at the house, they entered, ransacked the house
and set fire to it afterwards. The family highlights in this moment that they were not
at the house, but four of their pets were there, of which two died in the fire. On the
10th of November, Victor presented his resignation and since that day, the family
does not know where he is but knows that he is safe.
The family is composed by Victor’s wife and four children, two of them under
eighteen. They express that they are very afraid that there are civil group following
them. They are afraid to send their children to school. When they burned their
house, civil groups threatened to search out for their children.
b) Outline of the Case of Félix César Navarro

Miranda
The National Deputy for MAS-IPSP between 2006 and 2010, Vice Minister of the
Social Movements and Civil Society from May 2010 to April 2013, Presidential
Representative for the Patriotic Agenda of the Bicentenary from April 2013 to April
2014, on April 10th, 2014 designated Minister of Mining and Metallurgy until
November 10th, 2019.
Chronology of the persecution to which he was a victim:
Potosí October 21st: In the wake of a false report in a radio statement on the
program Micrófono Abierto, conducted by the journalist Juan José Hidalgo of Radio
Panamericana (FM 96.1), on the part of the municipal councillor of the city of
Potosí Azucena Fuertes of the political party Unidad Nacional UN (of the
opposition), in the afternoon, a protest led by the Potosí Civic Committee
(COMCIPO) moved to the offices of the Departmental Electoral Tribunal (TED) of
Potosí, and proceeded to take the institution and set it on fire.
La Paz November 8th: Late on Thursday, November 8th around 23:45, another
task force approached his home (Avenida Illimani #1856) in the neighborhood of
Santa Bárbara, proceeding to carry out acts of vandalism, painting the walls of his
house with obscene threats, demanding his resignation from the Ministry, using
words like “resign, crook”, “fucking crook”, and “no M (MAS)”. They also used blue
paint to mark the floor and the walls.
Potosí November 10th: Around 8:00 interactions and threats in WhatsApp and
Facebook groups called various groups to mobilize from the Bolívar plaza in the
city of Potosí, in order to loot and burn the homes of political leaders and
authorities of MAS. They identified the houses of Deputy Víctor Borda, President of
the Chamber of Deputies, César Navarro, Minister of Mining, and of René Navarro,
Municipal Councillor of MAS for Policarpio Acarapi, and President of the
Departmental Assembly and the office of the Union of Indigenous Campesino
Workers of Potosí, spreading the locations with directions. This act was a
consequence of the police riot on November 8th that left all the former government
authorities unguarded and unsecured; no security was provided to the two private
homes.
This same day a mob of more than fifty people attempted to enter the home of the
Navarro political family and looted the San Epifanio Pharmacy, which is located on
the corner of Avenida Antofagasta and San Alberto #800, a situation that was
repelled by the residents.
Some hours later, a task force followed by a mob entered his home, which is
located on the corner of the Calle Pallares and Uruguay, and destroyed the access
gate using dynamite, which destroyed the roof of his house. They also threw
gasoline inside the house and set it on fire, the same with objects of value which
were burned on the patio; furthermore they painted threats on the walls against his
whole family. Identical acts occurred at the home of his mother and brother René
Navarro Miranda, currently a councillor of MAS (acting 2015-2020) in the City of
Potosí, where his mother and sister had to be evacuated with the help of the
neighbors.
As a product of the related grave acts and of the threats and the professed threats
against his nephew Miguel Quispe, who was physically assaulted and the pain of
his family, César Navarro presented his resignation from the State Ministry around
11:00 in a public manner on national media, intending to pacify the attacks against
the physical integrity of his family.
This same day they also looted and burned the private home of Deputy Victor
Borda, and burned the offices of the Potosí Federation of Campesinos.
Political asylum. November 10th: “Faced with the violence of the acts, my
family in the city of La Paz went into hiding in a private home for a week, and
I decided to go to the Mexican Embassy on November 10th around 16:00 and
I requested political asylum, granted by the Mexican State on November 13th
and the Mexican Embassy in Bolivia asked the Ministry of Foreign Affair for a
grant of safe conduct on November 15th, still without a response”.
La Paz November 16th. On November 16th, in spite of the police security, two task
forces managed to enter the interior of the residency of the Mexican Embassy (with
police complicity) in order to attack the MAS leaders that are seeking asylum there.
The first group approached in the morning with masks and the second in the night,
both groups shouted racist insults and threats like “Eva Liz whore daughter of an
ignorant Indian”, “they should be shot”, “they should die like the rest of the Indians
of El Alto” and “slaves of the ignorant Indian”.
The harassment and the threats have not ceased against Navarro or against his
family, his daughter Kantuta Navarro has suffered political harassment and racist
attacks in the Universidad Católica de San Pablo, and the family members and
ex-coworkers who have visited the Embassy of Mexico have suffered acts of
intimidation and Harassment as well.
c) Outline of the Case of Elmar

Callejas Ruiz
The victim is 28 years old. He is a lawyer and a MAS deputy for Chuquisaca
Department (a representative of the population of Sucre)
Beginning the hostilities and political persecution in the city of Sucre, was the
occasion of the strike scheduled by the Central Civic Committee of Fernando
Camacho in all of the capital cities of every department, after the national elections of
2019. The violent acts began on October 21st, when a mod led by task forces burnt
down the Órgano Electoral, the headquarters of MAS and the headquarters of
campesinos in Chuquisaca, plus an office of one of the deputies; subsequently
entering the MAS headquarters building, which was ransacked, destroyed, and
burned. The persecution of civil groups was encouraged by the President of the Civic
Committee of Chuquisaca, Prof. Rodrigo Echalar, the Chuquisaca Departmental
Mobilization Committee formed by the Executive Secretary of the Departmental
Worker Center of Chuquisaca, Carlos Leonardo Salazar Ovalle, the Representative
of Heavy Transport, Seberino Condori, the President of the Medical College Dr.
Sorayda Navarro, and the Rector of the Universidad Mayor Real and Pontificate of
San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca José Luis Arrazola, Esq. Those characters
ordered the masses to encircle principal public institutions such as the Autonomous
Departmental Government of Chuquisaca, the Autonomous Municipal Government of
Sucre, the Departmental Assembly of Chuquisaca, and the Parliamentary Brigade of
Chuquisaca among others; and demanded the resignation of the heads of every
institution, all under the direction of the President of the Civic Committee of Santa
Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, the director of all civic committees in the country.
Leaders of MAS were persecuted as criminals with the threat of death and the
burning of their houses, threats that were made public on various social media sites.
After the police riot on November 8th, MAS leaders were left without any safeguards,
continuing the threats and harassment against the leaders and their families. After
these acts, they were forced to leave the city of Sucre on November 9th, with no
guarantee to continue living there. The harassment and threats also reached their
families; a situation that led to Callejas’ clandestine departure from Bolivia, together
with his brother and sister-in-law, and his asylum in Argentina.
d) The mistreatment and harassment of the unionist Paola Aguilar Serrudo for
opposing the strike and defending the right to work. She was forced to kneel down
and apologize for her statements. (See
https://www.telesurtv.net/news/violencia-contra-mujeres-indigenas-protestas-
oposicion-bolivia-20191107-0018.html)
e) Imprisonment, beatings, and threats on the part of police forces against the social
leaders Vicente Condori Rodríguez, Alfredo Mamani y Alejandro Yucra, from the
neighborhood of Plan 3000 in the city of Santa Cruz.
f) The assault and burning of the house of MAS deputy Brenda Segovia, recently
elected by District 48 in the Plan 3000 neighborhood. The victim received numerous
threats via WhatsApp, through telephone numbers and servers located in the United
States. Later the MAS leaders Miguel Angel Escobar and Juan José Aucachi were
arrested and forced to incriminate Brenda in every act of violence that occurred in her
area of residence. On November 10th her home was ransacked and burnt, which
forced her and her family into hiding for weeks. (Attached is a screenshot with
threatening message and a photo of the burned house).
g) The search of homes without a warrant or presentation of evidence, intimidation,

beatings and detention of members of the Departmental Electoral Tribunal of Santa
Cruz by police forces. They were later shown to the press in handcuffs. Two of them
(Eulogio Núñez and Ramiro Valle, the latter belonging to the Guaraní nation) had
several hearings suspended and were transferred to Palmasola prison.
(https://www.unitel.tv/la-revista/dos-vocales-seguiran-con-detencion-
preventiva-en-el-penal-de-
palmasola/,https://www.reduno.com.bo/nota/dictan-detencion-preventiva-en-
palmasola-para-a-los-cuatro-vocales-crucenos-20191112233624
h) The production of “blacklists” forcing officials to resign under threats. The Director
of the Escuela Normal de Camiri was publicly threatened and commanded to resign
from his position by a “town hall” organized by the Civic Committee of this town. (fue
amenazada públicamente y conminada a renunciar a su cargo a través de un
“cabildo” organizado por el Comité Cívico de esa localidad. (There is an audio
recording of his daughter's denunciation and photographs of the minutes with the
Committee’s resolutions, including a list of “unwelcome” people).
i) The threatening of activists through social media. (Attached is a screenshot). These
methods are broadly utilized to intimidate supporters of the government of Evo
Morales.
j) The harassment and humiliation of the activist Maribel Flores Vargas and other
young MAS activists in the City of San José de Chiquitos on the part of the Civic
Committee of that La Paz municipality, in coordination with task forces and the parish
priest of said place. Attached is video.
k) The persecution of workers of public institutions. Specifically, A. is a worker at the

state television channel BTV affiliated with Santa Cruz. He said that a few days after
the coup d’etat, a commission of four people sent by the new general management of
La Paz arrived. The work of this group consisted of interrogating and accusing
different technicians, press speakers, journalists, and presenters of the channel with
regard to their possible MAS sympathies. In some cases, the accusations included
the exhibition of screenshots from social media in which the defendants expressed
personal opinions. (Provided is audio.)
l) Overview of the intimidation, illegal detention, and falsified charges against
ex-Consul General of Bolivia Juan Ademar Valda Vargas.
Valda Vargas was designated Consul General in Buenos Aires by constitutional

president Evo Morales on September 2nd, 2019. He was dismissed on November
25th of the same year by decree of the de facto president Jeanine Añez.
Valda Vargas is a recognized political figure in Cochabamba, a member of MAS and

ex-National Deputy.
After the coup, in Buenos Aires he denounced the human rights violations of the coup
government in Buenos Aires. At the same time, and while still in office, his house and
his family were threatened with being burnt by task forces commanded by the
government.
However, due to the peace act issued by the de facto government on December 4,
he returned to Bolivia. At the Jorge Wilstermann International Airport in Cochabamba,
he was awaited by a group of 15 people who intimidated, insulted and threatened him
in the same way that delegation at the Santa Cruz airport was harassed by shock
troops specifically instructed to provoke.
On December 5th he was traveling with his father in his car when he noticed a truck
and motorcycle following them, but he managed to get away.
Days after, he participated in the Extended Committee of MAS in Cochabamba,

where he was again approached by the press and one again denounced the
systematic violations of human rights and the urgent need to find a democratic
solution.
These new denunciations, together with those made in Argentina, were repudiated by
the coup government, and used as the main reason for his persecution.
On December 10th he decided to return to Buenos Aires in order to complete the

formalities of the consulate where he had left, with a date of return to Cochabamba
on 12/14/19.
The ticket was paid for with personal resources and issued with a Bolivian citizen's
identity card. Despite the fact that he was not prevented from leaving the country, he
went to the Cochabamba airport where he was delayed without explanation except
for a laconic "we are waiting for superior instructions".
Long overdue already, a person named Aldo said to him: “there is an immigration
alert because you are travelling with a diplomatic passport which constitutes illegal
extortion of public funds”. Despite clarifying the situation (the payment of the ticket
and the ID card), once the inquiry was carried out by this Aldo, this led to his arrest.
He was translated to the custody of FELCC. The international pressure forced the de
facto government to issue a statement: “When he left Argentina he did so with a
diplomatic passport”. Almost 12 hours after his arrest, they decided to change his
official charges, since the attributed crime is still an exculpatory one, so they
extended the charges to ideological falsehood and sedition. They freed him at 16:00
and forced him to appear on the 16th where this time he could be detained on more
serious charges. In this situation he decided to leave Bolivia and obtain asylum in
Argentina in which he currently lives with the rest of his family.
At present, a series of actions continue to be carried out on the part of the de facto
Government, with the clear objective of outlawing MAS and preventing the political
and electoral participation of social leaders and of the inhabitants of the regions
where the majority of the population supports Evo Morales. It is worth mentioning
some examples that ratify the exhibited statements.
1. The request of the de facto government before the Superior Electoral

Tribunal to annul the MAS acronym.
2. Restrictions on the electoral participation of districts of the Tropics and the
Bolivian community residing in Argentina, with different excuses.
3. The attack of the task force “Cochabamba Youth Bikers” on 12/18 against the
election of spokespeople for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and the
departmental Tribunals in Cochabamba, with the excuse that they were MAS
guerillas.
4. Judicial and political harassment of the president Juan Evo Morales Ayma,
Hostigamiento judicial y político al presidente Juan Evo Morales Ayma, by
means of an appeal order issued on December 18th, 2019 by the Office of the
Public Prosecutor of La Paz, for the alleged commission of the crimes of
sedition, terrorism, and the financing of terrorism.
All of the acts denounced here permit us to affirm that the de facto government
used and uses all of the available forms of coercion to divide and atomize the
Movimiento al Socialismo, the representative social organizations of the
Indigenous Nations and the peasantry, with the clear objective of impeding and/or
limiting their participation in elections to be held in the month of April 2020. In the
case of Bolivia, in accordance with the Federal Research Division, “58% of
Bolivians are indigenous (28% Quechua, 19% Aymara, and 11% from other
groups), 30% are mestizo and 12% are of European descent” this would
mean excluding 88% of the population.
VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO ACCESS

JUSTICE
The criminal acts and severely grave violations of human rights in this report are
not being investigated, as we referred to in the beginning, by any local judicial body
in the State of Bolivia. No judges, nor prosecutors, nor public defenders have held
judicial proceedings in this regard. The Coup d’Etat is also a Judicial Coup in
Bolivia. The de facto government has effectively removed the independence
powers of the judiciary to limit the prosecution of complaints against its own
interests. International human rights law has developed standards on the right to
judicial and other effective remedies for violations of fundamental rights. In any
sense, the obligation of the States is not only negative - of not preventing access to
these resources - but fundamentally positive, of organizing the institutional
apparatus so that all individuals can access these resources. To this end, the
States should remove the normative, social, or economical obstacles which
impede or limit the ability to access justice. Today the de facto government in
Bolivia makes it impossible for citizens whose fundamental rights have been
violated to exercise their due right to access of justice.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announced on 12/12

an agreement with the de facto Government of Bolivia in order to create an
Independent Group of International Experts (GIEI) that helps to investigate “acts of
violence in the electoral context between September and December” in the
country.
The group of international experts will be composed of four people designated by
the organization, which shall have a technical team for the performance of their
duties, and term of office shall be six months, but it can be extended if both parties
agree to it.
In the agreement, the Bolivian State promised to guarantee to the experts of the
GIEI the access to the files of the investigations and criminal cases, as well as the
public governmental information related to the facts; as well as immunity and that
they carry out their tasks under safe conditions; apart from the necessary
resources to carry out their work.
The de facto Chancellor of the Government, Karen Longaric, revealed today that
the IACHR has an invitation from her Government to return to the country and
compose a new report with what the Administration considers “the truth” about the
conflict. The invitation seeks to allow the commission to “rectify” a published report
which warned of possible human rights violations and classified the deaths of
civilians in Sacaba and Senkata, among other events, as “massacres”.
This delegation should be made aware of the concern and possible revictimization
of the claimants, since the de facto Government itself, which hinders the normal
and independent functioning of the judicial branch in Bolivia and the citizenry’s
unrestricted right of access to justice without any discrimination, has endorsed the
ICHR’s proposal. Since our arrival in Bolivia, we have denounced before the
international community the violation of the right to access justice, a fact that we
we were able verify in our encounters with victims and in the very lived situation, as
the delegation was faced with various threats, some of them stated in a press
conference by the current Minister of Government, Arturo Murillo.
CONCLUSIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
The delegation ratifies that the Plurinational State of Bolivia suffered a coup d’etat
planned by international agents and local groups called civic committees, the
business sector, police personnel and senior commanders of the Armed Forces
with the objective to overthrow President Evo Morales and install a de facto
government, in which at least 36 people have been murdered.
In this context, we make a call to international organizations for the protection of

human rights and the entire international community to commit themselves to the
protection of human rights (civic, political, social, cultural, etc.) that find themselves
threatened by the current state of affairs and have been systematically violated by
the de facto government. We urge the Inter-American Court to begin the necessary
proceedings in order to establish the international responsibility of the current de
authorities of the Bolivian State in the face of the stated grave violations of human
rights, as well as the search for truth and justice in order to judge those responsible
for the massacres that have been detailed in this report.
Finally, faced with the reports of persecution of political, social, and union activists,
who have spoken of harassment and the complete impossibility of exercising their
right to assembly and all the necessary activity for the participation in the electoral
process, we assert that the opening of any process in the next 120 days that
attempts the recovery of the full validity of democracy and the rule of law in the
Plurinational State of Bolivia, only will be possible insofar as the political rights that
are systematically violated today are guaranteed. Without the ending of judicial,
media, personal and family harassment; without the possibility of all refugees being
able to return to their country; without the freedom of political press; without the full
participation of the indigenous nations and the poor, DEMOCRACY IS NOT
POSSIBLE IN BOLIVIA.
Participants of the Delegation:

ANNEX - EVIDENCE
The evidence is reserved and made available to the legal actions that we
undertake, both in the Argentine justice system and in international bodies.
1. Between them: Interviewing individually or collectively, confidentially and without the presence of
witnesses, where it is deemed more appropriate; maintaining the confidentiality of the source of
information gathered in the exercise of the intended function; requiring the informed consent of the
person concerned to publish his or her personal data and information in reports, media or other
forms of public disclosure
2 ICHR. Case of the Moiwana Community v. Suriname. Preliminary Objections, Background,

Reparations and Costs. Judgment of June 15, 2005. Series C No 124, par. 147.
3 MUÑOZ CONDE, Francisco, Prologue, in: DEL CARPIO DELGADO Juana, The victims
before the ad hoc international tribunals, Tirant Lo Blanch,
Valencia, 2009.
4 ICHR. Press release No 320/19. Available at:

http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/prensa/comunicados/2019/320.asp
5 The names of the deceased are given, however, the details of the claimants and any relationship
they may have with the victims will be kept confidential for security reasons. The delegation has the
informed consent to use them in the event of a complaint or petition to international bodies..
6 The deceased person identified with the number 7 is omitted since it is the same person
already identified with the number 1.
7 The personal data of the detained persons and of the families who were interviewed will be kept
for security reasons. The delegation has the informed consent to use them in the event of a
complaint or request to international bodies.
8 ICHR. Case of the Moiwana Community v. Suriname. Preliminary Objections, Background,

Reparation and Costs. Judgement of June 15, 2005. Series C No. 124, par.. 149.
9 The personal data of the injured persons and of the families that were interviewed will be kept for
security reasons. The delegation has the informed consent to make use of them in the event of a
complaint or request to international bodies.
10 ICHR. Case of Female Victims of Sexual Torture in Atenco v. Mexico. Preliminary

Objections, Background, Reparations, and Costs.
Sentence of November 28, 2018. Series C No. 371. Par. 200.
11 ICHR. Case of Gelman v. Uruguay. Background and reparations, Judgement of

February 24th, 2011. Par. 99 and note 113.

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2019

VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO ACCESS JUSTICE 83

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 84

The de facto government installed in power from November 10th proclaimed to

Despite a media blackout imposed by the regime, images circulated of brutal

The uncontrolled repressions by the current de facto government against the

In this chapter we will present an institutional legal analysis of the sociopolitical

In order to determine the dictatorial and anti-constitutional character of the

• The secretary-general of the OAS, Luis

Chronology of the coup d’etat

The October elections

Several opposition candidates ran in the elections, such as the center-right

The delegitimization of the electoral process: the installation of

The interruption of TREP (Electronic Transmission of Election Results) in the

On October 22nd, Camacho, ignored in the 48 hours he had given to President

In this context diverse public establishments were attacked by paramilitary groups,

On October 24th, the Organization of American States (OAS) and international

The popular response and growing violence before the

On November 6, the women of the Bartolina Sisa Movement, from Cochabamba

The deployment of the paramilitaries synchronized itself throughout the country,

Confrontations were deepening in Cochabamba and other parts of the

The paramilitaries aggressively took action instilling terror in various

The community of La Paz began to organize to counteract these groups. In the

The designation of the de facto

Despite the resignations, the legislative assembly without quorum designated a

The new de facto government was immediately recognized by the governments of

Civic Committees and Task Forces, or Terror Forces

The leadership of Camacho is fundamentally based on a white, Christian, and

INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PERSPECTIVE ON HUMAN

The self-proclamation of Jeanine Añez without the mediation of legislative quorum

Among the violations of international regulations of the treaties that can be

1. ​American Convention on Human Rights.

2. ​International Pact of Civil and Political Rights.

3. ​Convention on the Prevention and Sanction of Acts of Genocide.

4. ​International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial

VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

After examining the recounted information, the Argentine Delegation in Solidarity

It should be added that the victims of violations of human rights have a

Consequently, the analysis of the testimonial sources and documents obtained

Massacres perpetrated against the civil

At the moment of preliminary communication, the Delegation reported that it had

The Sacaba Massacre in Cochabamba was perpetrated on November 15th and

In Cochabamba, a peaceful march was held to La Paz, in a vindication of the

Having arrived in the town of Sacaba, a municipality close to the city of

Resistance to the coup in El Alto blocked access to the Yacimientos Petrolíferos

Following the announcement of the Añez government, through Hydrocarbon

On Tuesday, November 19th, the government ordered the destruction of the

The massacre ended around 18:00.

Wednesday, November 20th - Public Meeting

Some of the resolutions of the meeting were:

. ​-​Justice for the dead, wounded, and disappeared.

-Freedom on all detained.

-Repeal of Supreme Decree 4078.

Thursday, November 21st - Repression in

Deceased person identified as N° 1

Deceased person identified as N° 2

Deceased person identified as N° 3

PEDRO QUISBERT MAMANI, 37 years old, father of three young children.

Deceased person identified as N° 4

MILTON DAVID ZENTENO GIRONDA, 24 years old, third-year law student at

Deceased person identified as N° 5

RUDY CRISTHIAN VASQUEZ CONDORI, 23 years

Deceased person identified as N° 6

Deceased person identified as N° 8 (6)

1. American Convention on Human Rights.

2. International Pact of Civil and Political Rights.

3. Convention on the Prevention and Sanction of Acts of Genocide.

4. International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial

. -Justice for the dead, wounded, and disappeared.

Detained people identified as N° 2: (four people)

● Information obtained on October 22nd revealed that the Police have

● The Attorney General of Bolivia communicated in the DCFSE Report No.

● They received repeated reports of acts of physical and verbal mistreatment,

● The Service of Prevention of Torture (SEPRET) of Bolivia reported that the

● They received abundant information about the two massacres committed in

● According to public declarations, and before the IACHR, the victims

Wounded person identified as N° 5:

● They visited some of these people in hospitals in El Alto and Cochabamba,

Identified Case N° 1

1. Racist and misogynist violence prior to

2. Escalation of racist violence