Ex-Bolivian president sued over protest deaths ( in exile in U.S.)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Ex-Bolivian president sued over protest deaths
Posted on Wed, Sep. 26, 2007
BY STEPHEN MANNING
Associated Press

CHEVY CHASE, Md. -- The former president of Bolivia, who lives in exile in the United States, was sued Wednesday for allegedly overseeing the repression of protests in 2003 that left roughly 60 people dead and hundreds wounded.

The lawsuit against Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of 10 Bolivians who had family members killed. They include relatives of an 8-year-old girl and a pregnant woman who were shot in their homes. The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.

A similar lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Miami against Sánchez de Lozada's former defense minister, José Sánchez Berzain. Both men fled Bolivia in 2003, with Sánchez de Lozada settling in the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase and Sánchez Berzain in Miami.

The suits claim the men ordered the Bolivian military to violently quell protests over a new tax and plans to build a pipeline through Chile to export natural gas, one of Bolivia's largest natural resources.

It alleges police and troops using machine guns and sharpshooters fired on demonstrators, most of them members of the Aymara indigenous group, during protests in Andean towns. The killings were ''part of a pattern and practice of systematic or widespread attacks and human rights violations'' by Sánchez de Lozada, according to the suit.




Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/251179.html

[NoGodsNoMasters]

1. I hope this guy gets it.

We've too long buried the history of the US govt.'s support of brutal dictatorships (Which continues today!) during the cold war. Bolivia was one of those countries. This should be taught in school. We can't be a democracy and turn our backs on facism. Like the saying goes all it takes for evil to be victorious is for good men to sit by and do nothing.

[struggle4progress]

2. Bolivians sue former president in the United States (Reuters)

... The plaintiffs claim Sanchez de Lozada ordered a brutal crackdown on protests against his government in October 2003, killing 67 people and wounding hundreds. They want to see him convicted of crimes against humanity.

Sanchez de Lozada quit his post and fled the country soon after the bloody episode, 13 months into his second term as president of the impoverished South American country. He has been living in the United States in self-exile ever since ...

"They are the only ones responsible for what we are suffering here in Bolivia, we are not going to allow Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to tour the United States," Sonia Espejos, the widow of a man killed during the protests, said in La Paz at a news conference to announce the lawsuit.

"The suits ... charge Sanchez de Lozada and Sanchez Berzain with extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity for their role in the massacre of unarmed civilians, including children," the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement ...

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN26276366

[bemildred]

3. Chile needs to sue Kissinger.

Just saying ...

[NoGodsNoMasters]

6. Much more than that...

Although it's a good start. i'd rather see him in the Hague convicted by a fair trial, and then in front of a firing squad. Isn't that what they did with Tojo? Or was he hanged? Oh well, same difference.

[Peace Patriot]

4. It's interesting how these fascist thugs take refuge in the United States, isn't it?

And the Bush Junta has of course welcomed them with open arms. I wonder how that happens. Are they getting subsidies like the anti-Castro Cuban gang in Miami? Or do they have enough loot stolen from the Bolivian poor to maintain their lifestyles in the U.S., off the payroll? And how did they get through immigration, with so much blood on their hands? But I do forget--terrorists and murderers slip easily through Bushite fingers, greased by their mutual love of torture, gore, poor peoples' body parts, the blood of children, the blood of pregnant women slaughtered in their homes, the brains and guts of union organizers, peasant farmers, the screams of innocent Iraqis, thousands tortured, hundreds of thousands blown to smithereens, the bloated dead bodies of the poor in New Orleans...

The Bush Junta recognizes kindred spirits at our ports of entry, and they sail right through.

[Demeter]

5. WHY Is This Man In Our Country?

Don't we have any shame at all any more? Bad enough we have our home-grown fascists and thugs.

[Mika]

7. Where is he now? Miami, of course. Where all the RWingnuts flee to.

I think that the Shaw if Iran ended up in Miami too.


-

[Judi Lynn]

8. It hasn't been too long since they tried a couple of death squad officials

who had retired to South Florida from Central America.

Absolutely appalling to consider just how many vicious right-wing monsters with horrendous crimes against humanity records actually live there now. Jesus.

[humbled_opinion]

9. and the ex-mobsters... Pretty much the same anyway.. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

10. Former Bolivian leader sued in US for crimes against humanity

Former Bolivian leader sued in US for crimes against humanity
Posted : Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:35:00 GMT

Washington - Former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada faces a civil lawsuit in the United States, where he lives, over his role in incidents that cost 67 people their lives near La Paz in 2003. A group of relatives of the victims on Wednesday made public the allegations, which include an accusation of "crimes against humanity."

The charges were pressed on September 19 in the district court in Greenbelt, Maryland, a federal court, but had not been made public before Wednesday for fear that Sanchez de Lozada might leave the United States, the plaintiffs said in court documents available online.

The ten relatives of victims are demanding compensation from and punishment for c, who was Bolivian president from 1993-1997 and 2002-2003. The charges of extrajudicial killing, crimes against humanity, and violation of the rights to life, liberty and security of person and freedom of assembly and association, involve killings during the so-called Gas War demonstrations in September and October 2003.

The charges says Sanchez de Lozada "ordered Bolivian security forces (consisting of military and/or police) to use deadly force to suppress popular protests against government policies."

According to the text accepted by the court, "these security forces, relying heavily on military sharpshooters with high powered rifles and machine guns, attacked and killed civilians."
(snip/...)

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/114577.html



Here's Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada with his dear friend.
You might recall that even though the pResident was so
pleased with this killer, _Bush started having his cabinet
members, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld,
and lower officials threaten Evo Morales even well before
the election which he won, in spite of it all. He should watch
his back, always, as long as Republicans control this gubmint.