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News > Bolivia

Experts Confirm Rights Violations During 2019 Coup in Bolivia

  • The banners read,

    The banners read, "It was not fraud, it was a coup," La Paz, Bolivia, Aug. 17, 2021

Published 17 August 2021
Opinion

Due to the U.S.-backed violent actions, 37 Bolivians were killed by gunfire, 800 people were injured, and over 1,000 citizens were unjustly detained.

On Tuesday, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) delivered to Bolivia’s President Luis Arce a report on human rights violations during the November 2019 coup d'état, which led Jeanine Añez to power.

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On August 21, the investigation into these events will also be presented to victims' associations in La Paz, Senkata, Cochabamba, Sacaba, Sucre, Potosi, and Montero, the GIEI Executive Secretary Jaime Vidal tweeted.

The report delivery was completed on July 23. However, according to its action protocol, the GIEI gave the Bolivian government over 10 days to receive comments and observations before its publication.

The investigation spanned eight months, during which the GIEI experts interviewed 400 witnesses and analyzed over 120,000 files to clarify the truth and open proceedings against those responsible for human righs violations. 

On Nov. 16, 2019, the Añez regime approved Supreme Decree 4078, which exempted the Police and Armed Forces from any criminal responsibility for their repressive acts. Three days later, protected by this impunity tool, they murdered 10 people and injured hundreds in Senkata.

In this context, the paramilitary groups Youth Cochala Resistance (RJC) and Santa Cruz Youth Union (UJC) attacked left-wing politicians and social leaders as part of a hate campaign against the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), Indigenous peoples, and workers' organizations.

From Sept. 1 to Dec.31, 2019, at least 37 Bolivians were killed by gunfire, 800 people were injured, and over 1,000 citizens were unjustly detained. Police officers committed sexual violence against female detainees, many of whom were brutally beaten.

Indigenous detainees were also humiliated. Other Bolivians were arrested for providing medical care, helping injured people, or posting comments on social media against the U.S.-backed regime.

On Tuesday, after the results of the GIEI report were made public, President Arce ratified that human rights violators will be prosecuted and their victims will receive reparations. “There is much to do to compensate for damages. The murders are irreparable, but we will follow the path of justice,” he assured

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