Public prosecutor investigates hundreds of participants in mid-year strikes and road closures
The prosecuting authority confirmed it is maintaining 148 active judicial proceedings linked to the road disturbances that paralysed the country for more than seven weeks.
Public prosecutor investigates hundreds of participants in mid-year strikes and road closures
During the protests that kept the country's main routes blocked between May and June, numerous people committed crimes that are now the subject of criminal investigation. The top representative of the prosecuting authority, Róger Mariaca, revealed that there are currently 148 proceedings in progress in various regions of Bolivia.
The majority of the investigations—99 in total—were initiated on the prosecutors' own initiative, without a victim or third party filing a complaint. The remaining cases originated from private complaints.
La Paz accounts for the highest figure, with 114 proceedings underway. In descending order are Cochabamba (22), Oruro (5), Santa Cruz (2), Beni (2), Chuquisaca (2) and Potosí (1). The departments of Pando and Tarija have no formal proceedings related to these events.
The disturbances erupted on 1 May with a call that combined an indefinite labour strike and road obstruction. The work stoppage did not achieve the expected scope, but the blockade points remained active until mid-June, when former head of state Evo Morales called for the roads in the Cochabamba tropics to be cleared.
Mariaca clarified that there are defendants serving preventive detention in prisons in different parts of the country. Until now, information had been given only about restrictions on freedom in La Paz, El Alto and Cochabamba, but the prosecutor confirmed that there are also people deprived of freedom in other jurisdictions. He emphatically ruled out that any of those arrested had obtained alternative measures to imprisonment.
One of the most recent detainees is Vicente Salazar, a peasant leader affiliated with the Túpac Katari Federation. According to the prosecuting authority, there was sufficient evidence that Salazar actively promoted road closures, in breach of the agreements signed between government authorities and social representatives.
Regarding the complaint by the Pro Santa Cruz Committee against trade union leader Mario Argollo and former president Morales, Mariaca clarified that prosecutors in the eastern department are in charge of the investigation. "There are no active arrest warrants. We are summoning witnesses to clarify the facts without resorting to speculation," he stated.
_Source: El Deber_
Source: El Deber