Latin America
Related: About this forumBolivian ex-president can face rights trial in US
Bolivian ex-president can face rights trial in US
AFP
May 22, 2014, 1:49 pm
Miami (AFP) - A judge in the state of Florida has given a green light for a human rights abuses trial to move forward in the United States against Bolivian ex-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
Fort Lauderdale judge James Cohn, in a ruling dated Tuesday, said that plaintiffs may continue to seek compensation from the former president and his then-defense minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain, under a US law that protects torture victims.
The plaintiffs are eight Bolivians who live in Florida; they are seeking redress for the killing of their relatives in a military repression of civilians that left more than 60 people dead in their South American homeland in 2003.
The former president and his former defense minister fled the country and also are living in the United States.
Lawyers for the two argued that US courts had no jurisdiction since the events took place in Bolivia.
More:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/world/a/23736971/
Louisiana1976
(3,962 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,630 posts)There's one article on a woman who was NOT counted as one of the executed protesters by Goni's military, as she lived on in agony for months until she died. I posted it years ago on this thread, which has more information on the former President:
~snip~
On the morning of October 15, 2003, while the demonstrations that two days later would take down a president spread through La Paz and El Alto, the mineworkers leaders of Oruro province decided to march to the capital to support the rebels. In the La Salvadora mine, a 36-year-old woman, widow, and mother of six children between the ages of two and twelve, joined the miners contingent. Filomena León, who months later would tell her story before the cameras of Verónica Auza and Claudia Espinoza, was among the people who arrived that morning in the town of Patacamaya, a little more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from La Paz.
I dont know how they surprised us. We were getting out of the car peacefully to drink some tea.
The soldiers had orders to stop the caravan, and held back the miners with gunshots. First, they burst the tires on the miners trucks and seized their few belongings, then they attacked the miners, who, armed with sticks of dynamite, resisted the offensive. The palliri (woman miner) was among those injured in the clash. I felt the bullet, just the bullet. I havent risen since. I was ahead of the soldiers and the bullet entered me from behind. I dont remember anything else. The high caliber projectile embedded itself in Filomenas spinal cord. For months, in at least two public hospitals, the brave woman slowly lost her health and will to live; she was paralyzed, and her younger children couldnt even recognize her.
On April 30, nearly six months after being shot, Filomena León died of a lethal infection at the La Paz Clinic Hospital, according to the Gas War Memorial Testimony a book put together by Auza and Espinoza to record the dozens of deaths, the hundreds of wounded and mutilated, that were the high price paid by the Bolivian insurrection last year. In the last weeks of her life, one could see a fist-sized hole in her back. Filomenas sweet voice and black, abundant braids left this land forever. The same happened to Teodocia Morales Mamani (who was pregnant), Marcelo Chambi Mollinedo, Ramiro Vargas Astilla, and many other Alteños (from the city of El Alto), Aymara peasant-farmers, children and grandparents, men and women. And today, despite the Bolivian National Congress having authorized their prosecution, those responsible for so much pain go unpunished.
The Death Sentence
In a story of courage and strength, Bolivias poor, most importantly its Aymara indigenous population, defended their natural gas in September and October of last year, blockading highways and paralyzing El Alto and La Paz. Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, serving his second term as president, hoped to export this valuable natural resource to the United States through Chilean ports, against the will of the people. During the conflict, soldiers and police constantly fired on people armed only with sticks, stones, and occasionally dynamite. As in the case of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, or of the insurrection in Argentina in 2001, the repressive forces of the Bolivian state had orders from above; a license to kill.
More:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue35/article1138.html
[center]
Philomena Leon's image during her struggle, have to add it in her honor.[/center]
More information Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, vice president Jose Carlos Sanchez Berzain on this thread, and their #####y administration, which we are so sick to learn, was helped into office through the work of "Ragin' Cajun", James Carville and staff:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3345081
Apropos of nothing I just happened to be watching season 3 of Leverage on dvd. In the commentary on the season finale the producer mentions that the documentary Our Brand Is Crisis served as inspiration for that episode.
Judi Lynn
(160,630 posts)I'm sure it would be very worth while, if they've actually done research like that in order to prepare their episodes.
Did you see Our Brand is Crisis?
It's really sad to know any "Democrats" got involved with a complete monster like Goni, who continues to hide from Bolivian justice in the U.S. He is a total neo-liberal and corporate sell-out, and after he was elected he became a hideous mass-murderer.
I looked the show up to see what it is, and am looking forward to 4 seasons to see ahead!
Thanks for your post.
MinM
(2,650 posts)they go on to mention in that commentary about with all that's going on in the world you really don't need to make anything up.
Looking forward to Our Brand is Crisis