César Muñoz from HRW: "Bolivian justice system is not functioning"

 César Muñoz, Associate Director for Latin America at Human Rights Watch (HRW), expressed strong criticism of the Bolivian judicial system one day after the release of the annual report. The report stated that there was no evidence found against Luis Fernando Camacho for the crime of terrorism and that the accusation against Jeanine Áñez is "unfounded."

In an interview with the 'Influentials' program on EL DEBER Radio, Muñoz addressed various aspects of the human rights situation in Bolivia. He discussed the uncontrolled use of mercury in the Amazon, chronic gender violence, and overcrowding in prisons.

However, the main focus of the criticism was on the Bolivian judicial system. Muñoz stated, "I believe that all the people listening to this program will probably agree that the Bolivian justice system is not functioning. It has many problems, structural issues, and a profound reform guided by the principle of meritocracy is necessary."

The Associate Director of HRW emphasized that despite President Luis Arce's promises to reform the justice system to ensure political independence, those actions have not yet materialized.

Muñoz pointed out that the lack of job stability in the judicial system, where over 80% of prosecutors and half of the judges do not have permanent positions, is a detrimental factor. He stated, "This situation of job insecurity, transience, is very harmful to the judicial system because decisions are not ultimately based on the law."

In the context of the detention of the governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, and former president Jeanine Áñez, Muñoz questioned the political use of the terrorism charge in Bolivia, which he described as "contradictory to international standards."

"What we see is the continued use of the terrorism charge in a political way, and this happened in the government of Evo Morales, in the government of Jeanine Áñez, and is happening in the government of Luis Arce. The definition of terrorism in the Bolivian penal code is excessively broad and is being used in a way that is contradictory to international standards," he asserted.

10 convicts were recaptured and 9 judges were sentenced for favoring criminals

  The Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, informed on Wednesday the results of the Commission for the Review of Rape and Feminicide Cases. She highlights the recapture of 10 people who were sentenced for femicide or rape and 9 judges who were engaged in issuing favorable court rulings to convicted criminals were prosecuted.

"What is unfortunately happening, which is public knowledge and that fundamentally the victims suffer them, is this cover-up by bad judges, this criminal behavior by bad judges. And unfortunately there are other judges who also cover up, when what corresponds and what the Bolivian people are demanding from public servants is precisely that they act within the framework of justice", said Prado.

In this period, 10 convicts who were "illegally" benefited by "bad judges" were recaptured: two for femicide, two for rape and six for murder of a woman or child before the classification of femicide. Among them are Richard Choque and Abram Peters Dick. 

9 judges have been indicted; 4 of them are under arrest, 1 is under house arrest and 4 are in the investigative stage.9 judges have been indicted; 4 of them are under arrest, 1 is under house arrest and 4 are in the investigative stage.

He pointed out that they are also working on legislative initiatives to modify norms, such as a bill to modify the Penal Code and Procedural Code to increase the penalties for prevarication against jurisdictional authorities who favor feminicides or rapists. In addition, the interoperability of the computer systems and databases of the Supreme Court of Justice, Council of the Magistracy, Police and Agetic, among others.

Prada said that the "historic commission" was mandated to review all cases of femicide and violence and also to issue guidelines to improve the fight against violence, especially in the judicial sphere.

"In Bolivia, justice is far from the people": UN rapporteur presents preliminary observations

  García-Sayán ends his official visit to Bolivia after seven days of intense meetings with different sectors. He considers the cases of release of convicted criminals worrying.

Diego García-Sayán, United Nations special rapporteur for judicial independence and lawyers, issued on Tuesday nine preliminary observations at the conclusion of his official visit to the country.

His first conclusion was that "in Bolivia justice is far from the people", while expressing concern about the cases of release of convicted criminals and the increase in acts of violence against women, which are not punished by a "gap" that exists in access to timely attention.

"In Bolivia, justice is far from the people, to the extent that there is an urgency in Bolivian society for justice to respond to daily dramas, the understandable and legitimate reaction to the release of convicted criminals through corrupt means," he said.

He also referred to the situation of former president Jeanine Áñez, who could not be transferred to a medical center to be evaluated. He maintained that the State must be responsible for guaranteeing the wellbeing of all persons deprived of liberty, in addition to invoking that the guarantees and norms of "due process" be respected in this and other cases.

His observations:

"I cannot respond, Mrs. Áñez has her legal defense, the rapporteur cannot be able to advance an impression on innocence or criminal responsibility, we can only advocate for the respect of the due process", he said almost at the end of his press conference.

Likewise, he regretted that only half of one percent of the national budget is destined to the judicial area and that only 44 percent of the country's justice administrators are career administrators, most of them being transitory.

He considered that it should be evaluated whether it is appropriate to maintain the election of magistrates through the ballot box, admitting that evidence shows that this mechanism "does not work". He urged the different social sectors to reach a national agreement to face the reforms in this body. 

Studied, passed; but says he lacked $us 15,000 to be appointed judge

 The evaluation of candidates for the position of judges was carried out between December 2020 and May 2021, amid complaints about the election of some who had low grades and did not meet the requirements.

In the midst of the judicial crisis due to corruption and the growing distrust in the operators of justice, a renowned lawyer told of the bitter experience he went through in the application process to opt for the position of Criminal Instruction Judge of La Paz, due to the fact that his extensive trajectory, his academic merits and the good grades he obtained in the evaluations were not enough, but that he failed to "contribute" 15 thousand dollars for a supposed "recommendation" that would allow him to access the judicial appointment.

Justo Contreras (conventional name, because the lawyer asked Página Siete to keep his identity confidential to avoid reprisals in his work) applied, along with 302 other lawyers, to the call launched by the Magistrates Council, in December 2020, to opt for a position in the judicial administration for La Paz.

The candidate thought that all applicants would be evaluated under the same conditions, as required by the regulations of the Judicial Career System: "During the selection process of candidates for judges, transparency and access to information in a truthful, timely, understandable and reliable manner will be guaranteed in each of its phases".

The candidates had to pass several phases to access the position of judges: the qualification of merits (40 points), competence test (60 points), psychological evaluation (recommended/not recommended) and the interview (referential).

Contreras gathered all his documents to accredit his curriculum vitae, in which he had to certify his work experience in the legal field, academic level, postgraduate courses, among others. He also had to certify that he does not have a history of violence, a final charge sheet, cases of prohibition and incompatibility, not having been dismissed in a disciplinary process and others.

Página Siete reviewed the qualification process of the first phase of evaluation of the applicants and attorney Contreras was "qualified" to pass to the next phase.

However, "many who were dismissed, have passed, I do not know how they did it, but they passed and have been enabled," said the jurist, seeing in the next stage candidates who had been previously dismissed in a judicial instance.

The next test was the competency examination. The qualified candidates from different regions of the country had to travel to Sucre to take the written test at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Mayor, Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier.

Contreras said that the exam consisted of 60 questions and there was a three-hour period to complete the test. He said that the exam was very complex and complicated to solve, but there were some who completed the exam in half an hour. Here the candidates had to obtain a high score to qualify for the next phase.

According to the exam scores, the lawyer obtained a score above 40 points, which enabled him to proceed to the next stage.

He mentioned that the psychological evaluation was carried out at the Bar Association of La Paz, for the applicants of this region, which he also passed successfully and was qualified, as shown in the evaluation form. 

Contreras reached the final phase: the interview. This stage took place at the Council of the Magistracy, in Sucre, from April 7 to 10, 2021. Each applicant had to be interviewed individually on issues concerning ethics, office management and proposal. The parameters to be graded were Good (B) and Regular (R), and those who did not attend were simply given NSP.  

The jurist obtained a B (Good), according to the report card. And with this stage, all the tests that began in December 2020 ended and should conclude with the possession of the new best qualified judges, in an event scheduled for June 2021.

He said that once the test was concluded, he returned to La Paz to continue his work. Weeks later he received a call in which he was summoned to the Departmental Court of Justice, in reference to the tests he had passed to access the position of judge.   

"A judge (of criminal matters) called me and summoned me to the Departmental Court of Justice to ask me for that money. He told me, just in case, the 15 thousand dollars is not only for me", assured the lawyer, detailing that the mentioned judge had indicated him that those resources were supposedly going to be distributed among the three instances that have to do with the justice area.

He explained that in that meeting he was told why he applied for a court that was "very desirable", since there were so many others in civil and family matters. He was also told that they were in charge of making a "recommendation" report for those who were going to access the position, since it was not enough the tests approved in the qualification process, but he had to put the 15 thousand dollars for the designation.

The lawyer told that it was impossible to pay that amount of money, besides he did not see it ethical to do that to access a position that has the responsibility of administering justice.

"I did not agree, and a week later the judges have been appointed to this position", he said.

According to the affected party, the judicial authority who called him was a "collector" who collected these amounts for others, who were hiding behind him so as not to be involved in corruption. 

Judges observed

    2020-2021 Different lawyers questioned the appointment of the former departmental prosecutor of La Paz, Edwin Blanco Soria, to the position of judge, due to the fact that three other applicants obtained better qualifications, and he is also investigated for concealing evidence in the case of Jhiery Fernández.

    2021-2022 The lawyer Jorge Valda denounced that Marco Antonio Vargas and Liz Avilés, judges who will judge Jeanine Añez, acceded to the position in an irregular way, with low grades.

MAS pressure forces judge to reverse ruling favoring Áñez

  After a blockade, burning of tents and violent actions at the door of the Miraflores prison by groups related to the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) to prevent the departure of former president Jeanine Áñez to a hospital, yesterday the Departmental Court of Justice of La Paz backed down and decided that the former president should receive medical attention inside the prison.

Hours before, the judge of that court, Franklin Siñani, ordered the "immediate departure" of Áñez from prison to a hospital, due to her serious health condition after 10 days of hunger strike.

The second judicial order was issued after the governor of the Miraflores prison issued a report in which she stated that it is impossible for Áñez to leave the prison to a medical center in La Paz, as ordered by the La Paz justice system, because there are groups in confrontation outside the prison.

Meanwhile, the daughter of the ex-president, Carolina Ribera, after being attacked by groups of "masistas" and being expelled from the prison where she was accompanying her mother, announced that she will go on hunger strike in protest for the humiliations suffered and in solidarity with her mother.

 "My mother is alone and faint, harassed by the governor of the prison who prevents her transfer to the hospital, as ordered by the judge! They beat me out of the prison, hordes of officials push my mother's lawyer and I. Thugs!" declared Ribera, visibly affected after leaving the prison.

Yesterday afternoon, the Departmental Court of Justice of La Paz issued an order instructing the Governor of the Miraflores women's prison to take the necessary measures to provide medical attention to former president Jeanine Áñez, even if she is against it, with the participation of doctors from the Hospital de Clínicas.

Violence

After the judicial decision for the ex-president to be taken from the Miraflores prison to the Hospital de Clínicas, groups of MAS supporters gathered at the prison gates to prevent the ex-president's departure and burned the tent where Áñez's followers were holding a vigil. Carolina Ribera, her daughter, ran out.

Judge Franklin Siñani ordered the intervention of the hunger strike that SE installed 10 days ago, since last February 9.

In the resolution, the judge said that in view of the refusal of the former president to be treated, the governor of the Miraflores prison, Estefani Cervantes, must inform the director of the hospital of clinics to send the necessary medical personnel and equipment.

After the riots that took place at noon, the daughter of the former president denounced that she was assaulted by the prison police and that Cervantes assured that her mother was not going to be transferred to the hospital.

Against Arce

Meanwhile, Alain Canedo and Norka Cuéllar, Áñez's defense attorneys, held President Luis Arce responsible for the life of the former president, since the Executive Branch, through the Ministry of Government, is the entity in charge of enforcing judicial orders, an aspect that is not seen in this case.

Canedo explained that the Penal Code orders deprivation of liberty between two to six years for the person who does not comply with a release action. Cervantes would be directly responsible.

Government supporters again exercise violence

After the eviction, destruction and burning of the tent installed in front of the Miraflores prison, Carolina Ribera, daughter of the former president Jeanine Áñez, condemned the aggressions of groups that yesterday prevented the exit of the former president of Bolivia from the Miraflores prison to a hospital and told them: "The abuse that my mother and my family are receiving, tomorrow you will receive it". Shortly after 2:30 p.m., people who identified themselves as Senkata's victims and who are supporters of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) destroyed the tent and burned it. In the meantime, Ribera had to run and scream to avoid being assaulted and broke down in tears.

"The abuse that my mother is suffering, the abuse that my family is suffering, you are going to suffer, you are going to suffer this abuse, you are going to suffer this violence," she said.

 He pointed out that the governor of the Miraflores prison opposed the transfer of Áñez to a hospital center and violated the court order.

"She went on a rampage with me and my mother. That is my desperation, that is my concern. My mother this morning suffered three nervous breakdowns. My mother is being killed in front of me," Ribera said and broke down in tears again.

Añez has been on hunger strike for 10 days, a measure he decided to take in protest against the beginning of the oral trial against him in the Coup d'Etat II case.

Camacho says it is an "act of torture".

Meanwhile, the governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, denounced that the Movement Towards Socialism is applying a "clear form of torture", after learning that former president Jeanine Áñez will not be transferred to a hospital center after suffering the consequences of her hunger strike.

"It is clear that what justice dictates is not being respected, the MAS is applying a clear form of torture by preventing Jeanine Áñez from receiving the health care she needs. This looks like a dictatorship, the fundamental rights of political prisoners are not respected," she wrote on social networks.

Two military men admit guilt for minimum penalty, in exchange for avoiding jail time

According to Jorge Santistevan, the three-year prison sentence exempts the two uniformed men from going to prison for the Coup II case, however, they could still be preventively imprisoned for the Coup I case.

 The former commanders of the Bolivian Air Force (FAB) and the Navy, Jorge Terceros and Palmiro Jarjury, were sentenced yesterday, in an abbreviated trial, to three years in prison, after they admitted their guilt for the crimes of resolutions contrary to the Constitution and the laws and breach of duties, in degree of complicity, in the case of the alleged Coup d'Etat II. According to an expert, the legal system establishes that the three-year sentence exempts the uniformed officers from imprisonment.

"The judge's determination: The abbreviated procedure is accepted, with the imposition of a three-year prison sentence for Palmiro Gonzalo Jarjury Rada in the Patacamaya Penitentiary Center and for Jorge Gonzalo Terceros Lara in the Palmasola Penitentiary Center", refers to the judicial act in which the determination of the First Anticorruption Sentencing Court of La Paz appears.

In the hearing, the Ministry of Government objected to the military officers receiving only three years in prison and requested that they be punished as perpetrators and not as accomplices. On the other hand, the Attorney General's Office did not oppose the measure. Both instances are plaintiffs in this case.

A few days ago, the family of the uniformed men made known, through a public letter, that they requested the alternative solution of the abbreviated procedure "in view of the unequal and unsuccessful struggle in the Bolivian justice system".

In this note, they alleged that they were forced to make this decision, since not even the uniformed officers themselves agreed. They assured that the Bolivian population knows the truth of the events of November 2019 and "history cannot be changed with these processes".

Days before, the officers alleged that their only "mistake" was to obey the orders of the then commander of the Armed Forces (FFAA) Williams Kaliman and to be present at a press conference on November 10, 2019, when Kaliman read a communiqué where he suggested the resignation of Evo Morales to the Presidency, during the social conflicts of that year.

For Terceros and Jarjury that decision to suggest the resignation was taken by the former head of the Armed Forces without any prior deliberation. For this reason, they denied at all times that they were the authors of the crime of resolutions contrary to the Constitution.

According to the document of the request for the abbreviated process, the two military officers were also accused of failing in their duties by allowing the withdrawal of the presidential medal from the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) to be given to the then Senator Jeanine Añez.

"(On) November 11, 2019, completely ignoring the norms and the Constitution itself, members of the Armed Forces proceeded to remove the presidential medal from the BCB, flagrantly failing to comply with their functions and attributions, which start from the fundamental mission of defending and preserving the independence, security and stability of the State, through the safeguard of the constitutionally elected government, ensuring the principles", states part of the list of facts of the document of the abbreviated process.

But this version of the Prosecutor's Office contradicts the statement of the former head of the Military Household, Milton Navia, who assured that, without orders from any superior and by protocol, he ordered that both the medal and the presidential sash be taken out of the safe deposit box of the BCB and taken to the Palace, in view of Morales' resignation and the imminent inauguration of a new president.

In spite of this, Terceros and Jarjury were convicted of complicity for these acts and received a three-year prison sentence. Both have been in preventive detention since July 2021 for the Coup I and II case.

The analyst and lawyer Jorge Santistevan explained that the legal order establishes that the three-year sentence exempts the officers from prison, in that sense, the two were spared from remaining in jail for the Coup II case.

"A three-year prison sentence exempts the military officers from continuing in prison for that crime, however, the repercussions of having assumed the responsibility, on the one hand, is lapidary for the Armed Forces, because two former military chiefs who are responsible for the resolutions contrary to the Constitution due to the fact that they did not fulfill the constitutional mission", mentioned the jurist.

With the two military officers already sentenced, the defendants who will go to oral trial for the Coup II case are: former President Jeanine Añez, former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Gustavo Arce and former Army Commander Pastor Mendieta. Also to be tried in absentia are former Armed Forces commanders Williams Kaliman and Sergio Orellana, former Armed Forces Inspector General Jorge Elmer Fernández and former Police Commander Yuri Calderón.

 They see that the former military chiefs will continue to be detained for other cases.

Lawyer Jorge Santistevan considers that although former military chiefs Jorge Terceros and Palmiro Jarjury were spared from remaining in prison due to the minimum sentence they received in an abbreviated trial, they could still be imprisoned for the Coup I case and others, which are still in the investigation phase.

"The trial of the Golpe de Estado I process for the crimes of terrorism, sedition and conspiracy is still pending. But, in addition, they have another trial for the Betanzos case and the case of arms trafficking," he said.

He said that for these cases there is a latent possibility that both will continue to be detained.

The District Attorney of La Paz, William Alave, said yesterday that he will request an extension of the investigation period in the Golpe I case. "I do not yet have the time needed by the Prosecutor's Office, but yes, by continuing with the investigation we understand that we are going to continue with the request for the extension," he said.

Eusebio Vera, lawyer of Terceros and Jarjury, said that in the mentioned cases they have already presented the discharges to demonstrate that they did not participate. He added that the sentence, in abbreviated trial, against his defendants does not give immediate freedom, since deadlines and formalities must be fulfilled first.

"(The abbreviated process) will not have any effect on the other processes," he said.