House Arrest for Bolivian Military Officer Accused of Murder

A court judge in Sacaba (Cochabamba) decided on Thursday to impose house arrest for the commander of the Armed Forces, General Alfredo Cuellar, accused of murder during the massacre that occurred in November 2019 during the police-army intervention against a public march of coca growers who were trying to reach the city of Cochabamba in support of deposed President Evo Morales.

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Bolivia: General Alfredo Cuellar Arrested Over Sacaba Massacre

Cuellar, who was arrested on Tuesday, assured the Sacaba Prosecutor's Office that he only carried out administrative functions during those days and was the fifth in command, according to the Bolivian newspaper La Razón. The court order also prohibited communication with other witnesses and people involved in the case, the obligation to visit twice a week the Sacaba Prosecutor's Office for a signature, and the payment of bail of 250,000 Bolivianos (a little more than USD 36,000).

On Tuesday, the Bolivian Prosecutor's Office ordered the arrest of Air Brigadier General Alfredo Cuellar as part of the investigations into the Sacaba case. Cuéllar is the first person arrested for these massacres between September 1 and December 31, 2019, during protests carried out during the de facto government's period installed after Morales was forced out of the country by the military leaders the ultra-right-wing opposition in a coup.

The Inter-American Commission Human Rights (IACHR), an organization that has described these incidents as "massacres," is also investigating the bloody events that occurred in Sacaba (central-west) and Senkata (west), leaving more than 25 dead and a hundred wounded.

Various international organizations, including Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the United Nations (UN), have denounced the violence in the Andean country during the protests in November last year as a violation of human rights.