Bolivia sentences the murderers of the indigenous leader Juana Quispe

In a virtual hearing, Judge Inés Tola, head of the Fourth Sentencing Court of La Paz, read on Thursday, January 11, the basis of the sentence that imposed the maximum sentence in Bolivia against the former mayor of the municipality of Ancoraimes, Felix Huancaand the former councilor Pastor Cutilifor the crime of the indigenous leader Juana Quispe.

Ancoraimes is a town located two hours from La Paz, with an indigenous Aymara population of about 13,000 inhabitants.

The court also convicted the former councilor of complicity Basilia Ramos Calisaya to 15 years in prison, and for covering up his colleague Exalts Arismendi Villavicencioto two years, although the last one benefited from a judicial pardon.

Quispe, who had won the council position in 2010, was found dead of strangulation in a river in La Paz on March 13, 2012. after having participated in a demonstration in favor of the coca leaf and after having reported that she had received death threats.

The political leader was then 42 years old and her death occurred two days before the date on which a criminal court resolution against the councilors who prevented Quispe from exercising her position was to be heard.

Judge Tola said that Huanca and Cutili were public officials and had the obligation to enforce the law, but they took measures of “violation and ignorance of gender rights, political rights,” expressing “hatred for the victim through moral harassment.” and physical suffering” restricting her from exercising her duties as a councilor.

This was the siege of Quispe

Juana Quispe had a difficult life, because while she was still a child she was orphaned by her father and mother and had to take care of her sisters, Francisca and Margarita, although that did not stop her from standing out as a leader in Ancoraimes until she was one of the leaders of the influential Bartolina Sisa peasant group.

In principle, Quispe worked for the Movement towards Socialism (MAS), but since she was not taken into account locally in the lists for councilors, she applied for another group and won a council position.

For his part, Huanca was elected mayor by the MAS and, according to the testimonies cited at the hearing, took several actions to prevent Quispe from assuming his council positioneven disobeying a constitutional ruling.

Casio Villanueva, Juana's uncle and promoter of the trial, said that his niece stood out for having achieved the installation of a trout farm that still works, obtained funds for irrigation and managed to make a nursing career work in Ancoraimes, although later that project failed. .

Harassment by the mayor's supporters included The Council sessions will be held in another location to prevent her from attending, street chases, having cement thrown in her eyes, being dragged down a street and threatened with “Community Justice”, which is what some communities call lynchings, according to what was said at the hearing.

They say they are going to kill me, they are going to burn me

Days before being murdered, Quispe attended a meeting of Bolivian councilors to leave a dramatic testimony in which she said that she was not going to give up and that she was willing to “die.”

“They say they are going to kill me, that they are going to burn me,” Quispe said then, while crying and asking for support from the Government of Evo Morales (2006-2019) because her fight was so that women would not continue to suffer discrimination.

“The sentence is a precedent against political abuses”

The family's lawyer, Valkhiria Lira, highlighted that the sentence is exemplary because it respects the political rights of women and men who participate in politics, even if they have dissent with their organizations.

“It sets a precedent against abuses by politicians and authorities, who have discriminatory views and practices based on gender and political choice. That's the message. If they do that, they will have a 30-year sentence,” said Lira, who sponsored the case for free.

The trial lasted almost 12 years because there was “a lot of fear” in the family of reprisals, there was pressure from social sectors related to the accused mayor and because some prosecutors in the case, according to Lira, argued “that there was political pressure” in power. politician at the time.

Since February 2023, the Ombudsman's Office monitored each hearing to avoid delays and considered that the case is “emblematic and historic” because After the violent death of Quispe, the approval of Law 243 Against Harassment and Political Violence towards Women has been promotedenacted in 2012.

According to the Association of Councilors of Bolivia (ACOBOL), From 2018 to June 2023, 600 complaints of political harassment against women leaders have been reported.

“Harassment and political violence are latent and the Quispe case was unpunished, but now it has a sentence that awakens hope and establishes jurisprudence for other women to claim their rights,” said women's rights activist Eulogia Tapia, another of the promoters of the trial.

According to official data from the Ombudsman's Office, since 2021, four other minor sentences have been handed down for harassment and political violence against women, with sentences of two and three years.

In the opinion of Tapia, who directs the Observatory for the Enforcement of Women's Rights, women file complaints, but sometimes they abandon them because “they suffer threats in their territories that make them give up or their families also pressure them to abandon their homes.” charges in the face of the risk of dangerous situations.”

Thus, women who aspire to a position or representation resign themselves to continuing in traditional roles “without participating in the public space,” he concluded.

The ruling is decisive and offers guarantees to women who decide to enter Bolivian politics, predominantly dominated by men.