[News] Bolivia's De Facto Gov’t Grants Impunity to Police, Armed Forces

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolivia-De-Facto-Govt-Grants-Impunity-to-Police-Armed-Forces-20191116-0009.html?fbclid=IwAR3VLMtmEIya_9T5HsGIerrO3Com9vt5bUshlGHzxkgyBvFP7U2zt4PuaE8 



  Bolivia's De Facto Gov’t Grants Impunity to Police, Armed Forces

November 16, 2019
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The de facto government of Bolivia issued a decree Saturday exempting 
Armed Forces and National Police from criminal responsibility when 
committing acts of repression against protesters who have taken to the 
streets to reject the coup d'etat.

    /*RELATED:
    Bolivia: IACHR, UN Condemn Armed Forces' Killings of Civilians
    <https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolivia-Iachr-and-Un-Condemn-Deaths-by-Armed-Forces-20191116-0007.html>*/

"The personnel of the Armed Forces, who participate in the operations 
for the restoration of order and public stability, will be exempt from 
criminal responsibility when, in compliance with their constitutional 
functions, they act in legitimate defense or state of necessity," the 
decree reads.

The document also states that security forces may use firearms to 
suppress protests, as they are allowed to “frame their actions as 
established in the approved Force Use Manual, being able to make use of 
all available means that are proportional to the operational risk,” it adds.

This comes as violent repression from the government escalates against 
protesters in Bolivia.

*The de facto government that usurped power in Bolivia has conferred the 
Armed Forces to act without having to answer for their crimes. The 
number of deaths grows. The Argentinian government is silent. The OAS 
endorses. Michelle Bachelet and the U.N. must intervene. *

Over the last 24 hours, at least nine Bolivians have died as a result of 
repressive actions carried out by the security forces that support the 
coup-based government headed by Senator Jeanine Añez.

"23 people have died since the coup. The most recent victims are four 
people shot dead in La Paz​​​​​​ and five in Sacaba," La Paz Ombudsman' 
Office delegate Teresa Zubieta told teleSUR.

While the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemned 
the “disproportionate use” of police-military force in the repression in 
the city of Cochabamba where nine coca growers died and dozens were injured.

The IACHR expressed "concern about the actions of the armed forces in 
the operations carried out in Bolivia since the beginning of the week," 
and on Saturday the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle 
Bachelet also warned on Saturday about the dangerous path that protests 
are taking in Bolivia after the deaths in Sacaba, as the situation could 
”spin out of control.”

President Evo Morales was forced to resign on Nov. 10 after senior army 
and police chiefs called on him to do so following weeks of right-wing 
unrest and violence against his Oct. 20 elections victory, in what his 
government and world leaders have called a coup by opposition forces in 
the country.

-- 
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