They Shot Us Like Animals: Black November and Bolivia’s Interim Government
Executive Summary
Following a disputed presidential election on October 20, 2019, Bolivia has endured a surge of human rights violations. On November 12, 2019, Jeanine Áñez Chavez became Bolivia’s interim president with the mandate of restoring peace and calling new elections. Under her administration, however, state-sponsored violence, restrictions on free speech, and arbitrary detentions have all contributed to a climate of fear and misinformation that has undermined the rule of law as well as the prospects of fair and open elections.
In November 2019, state forces carried out operations that killed at least 23 Bolivian civilians and injured over 230. These casualties make November 2019 the second-deadliest month, in terms of civilian deaths committed by state forces, since Bolivia became a democracy nearly 40 years ago.
On November 15, three days after the interim government took power, state forces opened fire on a nonviolent march passing through the town of Sacaba, killing at least 11 people and injuring at least 120 others. All of those killed and injured were indigenous civilians. No police or soldiers were killed or injured. In response, Interim President Áñez published Decree 4078, which purported to give immunity to the security forces, sparking widespread condemnation from the international community.
Four days later, on November 19, soldiers fired on demonstrators and bystanders outside the Senkata gas plant in El Alto, killing at least 11 and injuring over 50. Again, all casualties were indigenous civilians, and no police or soldiers were shot. The interim government asserted that civilians, not state forces, were responsible for the violence in Senkata.
In the weeks following these killings, security forces – often collaborating with para-state groups – entered neighborhoods, hospitals, and schools near the sites of the killings, where they harassed, beat, and detained locals. For example, police arrested a disabled child, Kevin Calle Frauz, and his brother and sister, charging them with terrorism for, according to the siblings, walking through the wrong neighborhood. All three were tortured while in custody. Police also arrested artist Leonel Pajsi for sedition for carrying fliers in his backpack stating, “Flowers for the oligarchy, and bullets for the people” and “We are the people.”
Since the Sacaba and Senkata killings, the interim government has continued to persecute people that it perceives to be outspoken opponents of the Áñez administration. In November, then-Minister of Communications Roxana Lizárraga stated that the government had identified seditious journalists and threatened to take actions against them. The government has subsequently shut down critical media outlets, and police have attacked and arrested journalists and those tangentially connected to the press. For example, police arrested and charged journalist Alejandra Salinas with sedition after she wrote an online article condemning the government. The government also arrested and charged Orestes Sotomayor Vásquez for owning the domain of the website that published her article.
Members of the interim government, including Ánez herself, have also publicly maligned human rights defenders and political rivals, particularly those in the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, referring to them as “Indian(s)” and “animal(s)” and suggesting that they are rapists. Furthermore, the interim government has charged a number of former politicians with vague crimes such as sedition or terrorism. By the beginning of 2020, over 100 MAS politicians had been detained or were facing charges, and nearly 600 former officials and their families were under investigation, prompting public statements of concern by representatives from the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission.
Civilian groups aligned with the government have also carried out human rights violations, often with the support of security forces. For example, anti-MAS protestors kidnapped the mayor of Vinto, Patricia Arce, dragged her through the street, dumped red paint on her, cut her hair, and forced her to denounce the MAS party. The Inter-American Commission granted Mayor Arce precautionary measures, requiring the interim government to provide her protections. Instead, the Áñez administration has harassed her, accused her of kidnapping herself, and charged her with sedition.
In response to these abuses, the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School (“IHRC” or the “Clinic”) and the University Network for Human Rights carried out a roughly six-month independent investigation, interviewing over 200 victims, witnesses, journalists, and officials, to document the repression that has occurred since the interim government came to power in November 2019. This investigation has identified four concrete areas in which authorities have violated the human rights of Bolivians and foreign nationals:
State Violence Against Protesters: In Sacaba and Senkata, the use of force by the Bolivian police and armed forces against unarmed or non-violent protesters and other civilians has directly violated the right to life. According to eyewitnesses in both locations, security forces opened fire – without giving prior warning – on unarmed civilians, including those assisting the injured. Security forces also beat protestors, using racist and anti-indigenous language as they attacked them. The pattern in which police or soldiers intentionally or negligently shot and killed citizens without restraint suggests that these actors carried out extrajudicial killings.
Lack of Impartial Investigations and Access to Justice: When a state knows or should know that an unlawful killing has occurred, it is required to conduct a prompt, effective, impartial, and transparent investigation. In regard to the killings in Sacaba and Senkata as well as other human rights violations since November, Bolivia has yet to fulfill this obligation. The IHRC team documented multiple alarming obstacles that have undermined comprehensive investigations, including evidence tampering; autopsy irregularities; overworked and under resourced prosecutors; refusal by state officials to provide information; and witness intimidation. These barriers undermine justice for the victims and create a climate of impunity in Bolivia.
Persecution of Dissent: Freedom of assembly, association, and expression are fundamental pillars of a functioning democracy. According to eyewitnesses, the Áñez administration has continued to undermine these rights since November 2019. Officials have threatened journalists and shut down critical media outlets; arbitrarily arrested and tortured activists; and charged political opponents with vague crimes such as “sedition” and “terrorism.” These attacks have provoked a climate of fear in many communities in Bolivia and have raised serious concerns about the possibility of and commitment to holding free and fair elections.
Civilian and Para-state Violence: State actors are not the only ones committing human rights violations in Bolivia. Civilians have organized into vigilante groups, undertaking policing functions under state sanction and carrying out attacks on political opponents. Often these groups have directly collaborated with state security forces when they commit abuses, raising concerns that they have been acting as para-state groups. International law affirms that governments may be held accountable for the actions of private entities that have been endorsed or condoned by a government.
Based on these violations, the IHRC offers the following preliminary recommendations that, if properly implemented, may assist the interim government in upholding the domestic and international legal obligations of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. Section X of this report provides more detailed recommendations and identifies the government and international institutions that can best address them.
To the Interim Bolivian Government:
Investigate Human Rights Violations: The interim Bolivian government should investigate the killings in Sacaba and Senkata, arbitrary arrests, the planting of evidence of crimes on detainees, and other human rights violations carried out by state actors since the interim government came to power.
Facilitate Impartial Investigations: The interim Bolivian government should ensure that the military, police, state prosecutors, and para-state groups cease all forms of witness intimidation and guarantee that individuals will not be subject to reprisals for giving testimony. Public prosecutors should institute measures to protect victims of and witnesses to the human rights abuses under investigation.
Demand Accountability for Human Rights Violations: The interim Bolivian government should hold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable and refrain from offering them amnesty through any law. Military courts should not have jurisdiction over cases involving soldiers.
Commit to Freedom of Speech: The interim Bolivian government should reiterate and demonstrate its commitment to respect and uphold the right of media outlets to publish without fear of repression, first by releasing all journalists and human rights defenders arrested under charges of sedition or terrorism and second by reopening media outlets that the government has shut down.
Disassociate from Para-state Groups: The interim Bolivian government should emphasize the illegality of para-state groups, encourage their dissolution, and sever any ties between such groups and law enforcement.
Hold Free and Fair Elections: The interim government should fulfill its commitment to hold free and fair presidential elections as quickly as possible.
To the International Community:
Condemn Human Rights Violations: The international community should also condemn the killings carried out in Sacaba and Senkata, as well as other human rights violations that have occurred under the interim government, and withhold any economic or political aid if such abuses continue.
Insist on Free and Fair Elections: The international community should call for free and fair elections to be held as quickly as possible and denounce the persecution of political actors and their supporters.
