A group of 10 Bolivians is suing the country’s former president and defense minister in a federal court in Florida over the government’s response to protests in 2003 that left 67 civilians dead and injured 400 more.
The Bolivians say the two men escaped accountability in Bolivia by relocating to the US and must be forced to pay damages for the deaths of innocent family members.
“We hope the judiciary in the United States will give a fair trial for the victims and defendants. We are asking for justice,” said Juan Patricio Quispe Mamani, whose brother was killed in the protests.
All the people bringing the lawsuit still live in Bolivia.
Former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who lives in exile in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and former defense minister Jose Carlos Sanchez Berzain — now a resident of Key Biscayne, Florida — say the case should be thrown out. They contend they were doing their constitutional duty to quell a violent uprising and that the events and people involved are purely Bolivian and, as such, are not subject to US laws.
“The actions I took at a time of national crisis in 2003 were necessary to protect lives and property and restore law and order,” Sanchez de Lozada said in written statement to wire agencies.
“Regrettably, lives were lost among both the government forces and armed protesters,” he wrote.
The “Black October” protests swelled into riots following years of resentment and poverty endured by Bolivia’s indigenous Aymara people.
The situation reached a crisis when peasants tried to block roads, set fire to a tourist hotel and then mounted a violent blockade of the capital, La Paz.
Bolivian President Evo Morales, an Aymaran Indian and at the time a first-time congressman, turned the events into a movement that eventually resulted in his election as president.
Berzain called the Miami lawsuit “political persecution” by Morales. But attorneys for those bringing the lawsuit said the two former leaders chose to subject themselves to US law by moving to this country after leaving power.
“They have made this their home. How can they be surprised that they would be subject to US law?” said Judith Chomsky, a cooperating attorney with the nonprofit Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.
Bolivian Ambassador to the US Gustavo Guzman scoffed at the claim that that the two former leaders acted properly during the protests.
“No Bolivian law states that part of the function of state men is murder,” Guzman said in an e-mail.
There were initially two separate lawsuits filed last fall — one against Sanchez de Lozada and one against Berzain — but those were consolidated on Tuesday.
The lawsuit is brought under two US laws: One law allows foreigners to sue in US courts for violations of international law and another permits lawsuits against foreign officials for torture or extrajudicial killings.
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