Argentine police officer expelled from Bolivia after illegal border crossing at Villazón
Corporal Maximiliano Óscar Martínez was found in El Alto and will be handed over to Argentine authorities. The investigation will seek to clarify his whereabouts during seven days.
Argentine Federal Police corporal to be expelled from Bolivia following illegal border entry at Villazón
Corporal of the Argentine Federal Police Maximiliano Óscar Martínez will be expelled from Bolivia after illegally crossing the border between Villazón, in the department of Potosí, and La Quiaca, in the province of Jujuy.
According to El Deber, Martínez was located in the Mercedario plaza in the city of El Alto by officers of the Bolivian Police and taken to the Virgen de Copacabana hospital for an evaluation of his health status.
"Maximiliano is going to be expelled from Bolivia because he entered illegally and what corresponds is that Bolivia expel him," confirmed the prosecutor of La Quiaca, Alberto Mendivil, to El Deber.
Mendivil clarified that the corporal will be transferred to Villazón, from where the expulsion will be carried out and his subsequent handover to Argentine authorities. It is still unknown whether the administrative procedure will be carried out in the coming hours or the following day.
Once the procedure is concluded, Martínez will be able to cross the border towards La Quiaca, where the investigation will continue to determine what occurred during the seven days in which he was missing.
The Public Prosecutor's Office indicated that the corporal's account will be decisive in establishing whether he crossed the border of his own volition or if a third party was involved. His testimony will allow for a reconstruction of the route he travelled during that period and obtain key information for clarifying the case, which kept his family as well as the prosecutors and federal forces who mobilised in the border zone on tenterhooks to locate his whereabouts.
Source: El Deber