On Wednesday, a Bolivian court imposed a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for police officers Wilber Rodriguez and Ronald Uncari, who were found guilty of raping an 11-year-old girl in the Villamontes city in 2021.
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Tarija City Prosecutor Sandra Gutierrez explained that the accusation against the officers was proved by a psychological and a medical report and the statement of the minor, who detailed how the events occurred and recognized her aggressors.
After gaining the victim’s trust through social media contacts, Rodriguez took the child to a low-traffic spot on a police patrol and raped her in February 2021. A month later, Rodriguez raped the girl with Uncaria for a second time under the same modus operandi.
The crimes did not take long to come to light since the minor’s mother found compromising messages on the girl’s phone on May 27 of that year and quickly filed a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office.
Rapes and sexual abuses are some of the most reported crimes in Bolivia. From Jan. 1 to March 31, Bolivian citizens filed 9,527 complaints of domestic violence, 682 accusations of sexual abuse, and 611 complaints of rape of minors.
Faced with the recurring cases of gender-based violence, the Bolivian government declared 2022 as the "Year of the Cultural Revolution for De-Patriacalization and a Life Free of Violence against Women."
"Society must challenge habits and customs that make girls and women inferior as the first step to end all forms of gender-based violence,” NGO Plan International Bolivia member Armando Oviedo stated.