Bolivia: 1,748 deaths in transit and 67 femicides, violence ignored by the State
El Deber publishes an analysis of invisible violence in Bolivia: road fatalities, femicides, mining deaths and drug consumption are pushed to the background.
Violence that kills without proportional state response
El Deber publishes an analysis by criminologist Alejandro Colanzi on forms of violence that, in Bolivia, accumulate victims without receiving a state response proportional to their scale.
In 2024, 1,748 people died in traffic accidents and another 15,817 were injured. Between January and September of that same year, 32,444 reports of violence against women and minors were recorded, of which 23,397 correspond to domestic violence. By October, 67 femicides had been counted. In the mines of Potosí alone, 115 workers died by September.
Colanzi points out that drug trafficking has historically occupied a central place in the Bolivian State's security agenda—reinforced now by the Shield of the Americas operation—and that this priority ends up rendering other forms of violence invisible, violence that also kills, maims and destroys families.
Roads and mines: omission with consequences
Roads and streets are the responsibility of different levels of the State. However, vehicles circulate without brake lights, with deficient signage or with loads that make it difficult to detect their presence. At toll booths there is police presence, but preventive controls are scarce. Not all deaths are attributable to the State, Colanzi argues, but many could be prevented with effective oversight.
In mining, workers enter the galleries exposed to accidents, pulmonary diseases and labour protection shortcomings, in the midst of a boom in mineral prices. The mining cooperativist movement, the author notes, has demonstrated capacity to establish alliances with governments of different ideological leanings: from the MAS to the government of Jeanine Áñez and, subsequently, the administration of Luis Arce. This political transversality raises the question of whether ideological convictions or the defence of economic interests prevail.
Gender violence and drugs in vulnerable sectors
The 32,444 reports of violence against women and minors demonstrate a victimisation that is not limited to femicides. Colanzi emphasises that punishing after the crime is insufficient: the challenge consists in preventing, protecting victims and avoiding their revictimisation.
Regarding drug consumption, the analysis is not restricted to marijuana or cocaine. It points to the presence of cocaine paste, pitillo and clefa among marginalised populations. The inhalation of clefa among children and adolescents in street situations represents, according to the criminologist, a double tragedy: dependency and abandonment simultaneously.
The power to decide which violence matters
Colanzi identifies a common pattern in these phenomena: the power to define which violence deserves priority attention and which can continue producing victims without sufficient responses. "It is not always necessary to hide a tragedy. It is enough to become accustomed to it," he writes.
From victimology, the author expands the criminological perspective beyond the offender and punishment, to include the dead, survivors, the maimed, destroyed families and those who will carry physical and psychological consequences for life.
The Bolivian Constitution obliges the State to protect the life and integrity of persons. The omissions in that duty, Colanzi warns, can generate political, administrative and even criminal responsibilities.
"The problem is not only how many offenders the State manages to capture, but how many victims it manages to prevent," he concludes. "Invisible violence is not that which no one sees. It is that which we all know about, but which we continue to permit."
Alejandro Colanzi is a criminologist.
Source: El Deber