Garcia Linera: US Protects the "Criminals" from the 2003 Massacre

Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera charged that the United States government protects the “criminals” that ordered the massacre of October 2003, in reference to former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada’s trial for genocide, alongside his former ministers of state.

The words of the county’s second leader were produced at the conclusion of the Juancito Pinto Voucher ceremony, in the Tarapaca school in the city of El Alto. Garcia remembered that nine years ago, the population of that city led a popular revolt against the export of natural gas to the United States and Mexico through a Chilean port; the violent military suppression left more than 60 dead and at least 400 injured.

“October marked the toppling of a group of criminals that were determined to kill all Bolivians in order to preserve their privileges. Those criminals have escaped to the United States and unfortunately, the North American Embassy and the North American government, instead of doing justice and helping punish a criminal, a person guilty of genocide, conceals and protects him,” he argued.

Garcia lamented the American government’s refusal of the Bolivian petition for the extradition of Sanchez de Lozada. He declared that the United States “protects criminals and those who commit genocide by a state policy and without legal grounds.”

“It is clearly a political decision, not a legal fact. It’s the political decision of a government that has always protected and apparently wants to continue protecting the powerful, the wicked, the people that have poison in their hearts,” he maintained.

He remembered that the “gas war” marked the beginning of a new era for the country, characterized by the recovery of natural resources in compliance to what the new Political Constitution of the State establishes.

On May 18, 2009 the indictment was issued against Sanchez de Lozada and his colleagues, accusing them of genocide, extreme injuries, serious and minor injuries, abuse and tortures, crimes against freedom of the press, raids of a residence or their offices and resolutions against the Constitution and its laws.

At least 320 witnesses testified before the indictment was issued, among them the former presidents, deputy ministers, union leaders and other authorities. Sanchez de Lozada is also accused of economic crimes.