Both were responsible for the massacre of almost 70 people in El Alto in October 2003 and had to negotiate compensation for the victims, lawyer Thomas Becker and his clients confirmed at a press conference.
The lawyer described it as an unprecedented event and a victory for the nine families representing the dozens of victims who brought and conducted the civil case.
This trial began on March 5, 2018 before United States Federal Judge James Cohn of the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The legislative initiative was created and promoted in response to Bolivia’s unsuccessful petitions to the United States to obtain the extradition of the main defendants in the accountability file opened in the courts.
Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín fled to the northern country in 2003 and found refuge there after the massacre that left nearly 70 people dead and hundreds injured from gunshot wounds.
The former defense minister ordered a massive bombing in response to the population’s failure to contain the social protest of those who opposed the then neoliberal government’s export of Bolivian gas to the United States via Chile “at the price of a dead chicken.” States should send.
“After fighting for 20 years, we did it, no one is untouchable in this life, no matter how much money they have, whatever it may be,” said Teófilo Baltazar, one of the plaintiffs.
The amount of compensation and the terms of the agreement concluded this Thursday are confidential, said Becker. However, Judge Cohn determined in his first ruling and ratification in 2021 that the defendants would have to pay $10 million.
“There is an order that says it is time to settle the dispute. What does that mean? There are no more appeals, Goni couldn’t appeal, they can’t go to the Supreme Court, there are no more appeals,” the lawyer reported.
He added that only the verdict holding them responsible for extrajudicial killings remained.
“Now the message is being sent that the door of our home (the United States) is closed to people who kill their people,” exclaimed the North American lawyer.
These crimes occurred during conflicts in the city of El Alto and its neighbor La Paz, in which tanks and heavily armed military personnel intervened.
The precursor to the popular uprising in El Alto was the February 2003 police uprising in La Paz, in protest against a payroll tax imposed by the neoliberal government of Sánchez de Lozada.
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