public lynching in Bolivia, including a pregnant woman graphic video

[Bacchus39]

http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=94038



and in response to the idiocy of a recent thread:

1. Most Bolivians are Catholics
2. One would suspect someone who had an antagonistic relationship with the church to be responsible, perhaps say, the government.
3. what's your definition of terrorism?? see video.


"Clearly the government didn't do it, and there have been no acts of terrorism by the native population,..."

[Bacchus39]

1. Murderous lynch mobs spark safety fears in Bolivia

http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2008-12-04/Murderous_lynch_mobs_spark_safety_fears_in_Bolivia.html


Murderous lynch mobs spark safety fears in Bolivia
04 December, 2008, 14:32

A mass lynching by supporters of the government causes problems as the ruling party attempts to legalize community justice in the proposed constitution.

Yahoo StumbleUpon Google Live Technorati Scoop del.icio.us Digg Sphinn Furl Reddit On Sunday (23.11.08) a huge lynching took place in the small town of Achacachi, 100 km north of La Paz. Eleven alleged thieves were caught at a fiesta and taken to the town’s football stadium, where they were beaten up and set alight. Two died and nine others, including five women, were hospitalized.

The alleged thieves acted as an organized syndicate. They were on their own bus, which they use to travel between fiestas, when they were captured. More than 2,000 people are reported to have been involved in the attack.

Achacachi is a bastion of the “poncho rojos” (red ponchos), a militant group of Aymara indigenous people that supports the MAS government. The town’s mayor, Eugenio Rojas, one of the poncho rojos, prevented more people being killed.

Bolivian Radio Fides reported that a nearby army unit had tried to intervene, but local residents would not allow them to stop the lynching.

Minister’s condemnation tempered by understanding

The government of Evo Morales—the first indigenous president in South America—has shown some understanding for the attacks. Speaking to Radio Erbol, Bolivia's deputy interior minister, Ruben Gamarra acknowledged that the incident was “a reaction of the public by virtue of the fact that they have no confidence in the actions of prosecutors and the judiciary.” One of the alleged thieves was an off-duty policeman.

The minister went on to pledge that the attackers would be punished, which has provoked an angry response from the local population. The market village, 3,800 meters high on Bolivia’s Altiplano, only has a population of 7,900 but they are fiercely independent.

Since the attack, a pact of silence has been declared in the Aymara town. There are no police here now and the army is keeping a low profile. Strangers are viewed with suspicion and journalists are in danger. There is little government representation since the mayor declared civil law. It seems unlikely anyone will ever be charged.

Question marks over community justice

The implications are complicated for the MAS government, which now opposes a group of its traditional supporters. While advocating legal recognition for many indigenous traditions and institutions—such as community justice—the government says that lynching cannot be tolerated.

Deputy interior minister, Ruben Gamarra called on the residents of Achacachi to “put aside violent attitudes” and said “vigilante justice is not community justice”.

There is much debate in Bolivia about what community justice entails. Lynching is not uncommon in government-supporting indigenous communities in Bolivia, where the police have little presence or respect. In February, three policemen were lynched in Cochabamba—nine months later, no one has been charged. Stuffed mannequins hanging from lampposts are also commonplace—a warning and symbol of what the local people do to thieves.

The legal system’s infrastructure is poor and corrupt, so there is little faith in the functioning of ordinary justice. For centuries, there has been a tradition within indigenous Andean villages to practice some form of community justice. Its value is recognized by some groups around Latin America. USAid supports programs advocating the principles and procedures of community justice in Colombia, Guatemala and Peru, and claims “impressive” results.

The government plans to enshrine community justice’s legality in the proposed constitution, which goes to referendum on 25th January 2009. Proponents of community justice’s formal recognition point out that it traditionally emphasizes reconciliation and rehabilitation. It has served a valuable purpose in quickly providing justice in places where the formal legal system is ineffective and a long way away.

Critics, such as Human Rights Watch, say the constitutional recognition of community justice “endangers some of the fundamental rights of Bolivian citizens”. The violent incident in Achacachi feeds the worst fears and prejudices of the mestizo population (European descendant Bolivians) in the lowlands of this deeply divided country.

Jonathan Stibbs for RT

[Bacchus39]

2. Bolivia UN report

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,,BOL,4562d94e2,49a8f1a4b4,0.html

Deaths by lynching remained a problem. While there were no official statistics for lynching deaths, the government's Special Force Against Crime (FELCC) registered 31 reported cases through September: seven cases in El Alto, five in La Paz, two in Potosi, nine in Cochabamba, one in Sucre, and seven in Santa Cruz. Local press reports in Cochabamba reported 15 lynchings. The Cochabamba ombudsman's office estimated at least 45 lynchings across the country.

In locations where lynching was common, some residents attempted to justify the practice by asserting that it was part of their tradition of "communitarian justice" and a pragmatic response to a lack of access to justice through the legal system, which was a problem. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in a June 2007 report noted that only 180 of the 327 municipalities had a judge, only 76 had a prosecutor, and only 11 had a public defender. According to a Freedom House 2008 report released during the year, a "lack of clarity" in codifying indigenous customary law "resulted in dozens of acts of 'communal justice,' including lynching, in violation of international human rights norms."

In a high profile case on November 17, a large crowd of Achacachi residents stoned and burned eleven suspected thieves, killing two and badly injuring the rest. According to local media, which published graphic pictures of the victims, police rescued the survivors after several hours of torture in a local soccer stadium. Residents refused to cooperate with an official investigation. In another case on December 4, a youth in Riberalta was beaten to death for stealing toilet paper.

[struggle4progress]

3. That's not a UN report but a US State Department report

[Bacchus39]

4. thanks for the clarification, it appears to be a UN site though

but what do you think about lynching?

[struggle4progress]

5. I'm opposed to the death penalty in general. Why would I support lynching?

There have been a number of press reports in recent years about mob violence in Bolivia. Some accounts try to tie these events to ancient indigenous custom, but such violence is not limited to isolated peasant communities. Other accounts attempt to tie the events to the current administration -- although the administration has denounced such mob violence and although a lookalike was apparently nearly lynched after being mistaken for Morales

Understanding the actual psychology of such events is necessary for prevention: lynch mobs always present a political problem, since participants feel justified and may have the ability to prevent intervention by state authorities attempting to stop the violence. The coverage is usually not detailed enough for me to form any definite opinion about the actual dynamics or the real relationships between the mobs and victims