The illegal release of femicides with the help of judges, lawyers and doctors who certified false ailments to prisoners to benefit them with house arrest has put the Bolivian Justice on the defendant’s bench. The corruption plot discovered reaches worrying dimensions with more than one hundred cases investigated, which has caused greater mistrust of the authorities and pain in the families of the victims.
Three weeks ago, Bolivia was immersed in shock upon learning that the man sentenced to 30 years for a femicide Richard Shock Flowers In exchange for a bribe of $3,500 and a whiskey, he obtained the benefit of house arrest with falsified medical certificates. In addition, the femicide took advantage of that benefit to kill two other young women that she buried in her house and to rape dozens of women, a figure that could reach 70, according to the authorities.
The case was far from being exceptional because in the last few hours, the Minister of the Interior (Interior), Carlos Eduardo del Castillo, confirmed that 23 people have been captured, including those convicted of femicide and rape who were free, in addition to judges. and lawyers who would form, he said, a “criminal organization” to free these criminals.
According to data from the investigation, three judges have been arrested, including the one in the Choque Flores case; three lawyers, three doctors and two court employees, all implicated in corruption cases.
In addition, Del Castillo revealed that a commission formed by order of President Luis Arce is “investigating 135 cases of people who would have an enforceable sentence for the crimes of femicide, rape and aggravated rape”, including those committed against children and adolescents, but who do not they are being held in prisons as they should be.
Bolivia is one of the South American countries with the worst rates of sexual violence and femicide and complaints against Justice are common, but it was unknown that femicides sentenced to 30 years without the right to pardon could achieve house arrest, which in practice is the same as having freedom since they are not guarded.
After the arrests, the Bolivian Association of Magistrates and Judges asked not to make generalizations, considered that the sector is being attacked and violated in their honor when the detained magistrates are presented in the media, and also demanded that the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police also assume their responsibility. responsibility for not having ruled at the time on the reported cases.
Only 31% of femicides have a sentence
The actions to disrupt the “criminal organization” coincided this week with the visit to Bolivia of the UN Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, the Peruvian Diego García Sayán, who evaluated with various institutional and political actors the general crisis of the Bolivian justice, questioned for its lack of independence.
The jurist, who concluded that Justice “is far from the people”, also met with the families of the victims of femicide and said he had received “worrying information and several painful testimonies” that they cannot access Justice.
According to data from García Sayán, between 2013 and 2021 there were 869 femicides, an average of one every three and a half days, and of which only 31% reached a sentence.
And that so far in 2022, there have already been 15 femicides and two other murders of women remain to be confirmed with that classification, applied to crimes based on gender and sexist violence.
In Bolivia there are 27 courts to deal with these cases, but the processes are so slow that families end up abandoning the trials, so 31 more courts should be created, said the United Nations official.
Regarding those released, the UN representative said that “these situations are worrying indicators of what may be possible through illicit and irregular means and must be punished with the full weight of the law. Corruption can also be, as can be seen, a tool to attack judicial independence”.
Lawyer Echeverría: we have “sexist and misogynist” judges
Lawyer Jessica Echeverría, known for defending the families of victims of femicide and sexual violence, told France 24 that in her daily experience she has found that demands for justice collide with the corruption of judges, but also with macho behavior in the courts. courts.
“In most cases we have judges, prosecutors and police officers who are sexist and misogynistic. In Justice there is a gender bias,” said the lawyer, assuring that the judges re-victimize those who suffered a violation with interrogations in macho language that puts definitely the women’s version.
The lawyer requested the training of judges with a different gender approach, respectful of the condition of the victims in compliance with the law; the publication of a registry of sexual aggressors and femicides as there is in other countries and that the State supports with legal reforms that speed up trials for femicides to have sentences.
Activist Nidia Coca, from the Mujeres de Fuego group who managed to meet with García Sayán, said that “when the State does absolutely nothing in the face of complaints that the law is not respected, it is also guilty that there is no Justice.”
“As long as there is no cleaning in the judicial body, rapes, femicides and murders will continue to occur. There must be high criminal penalties for bad judicial officials,” he claimed.
The situation of the judges accused of favoring femicides is just one of the angles of the Justice crisis, which García Sayán proposes to save with a “great national agreement”, although the political and social context continues to be one of polarization and any debate falls on that stage.
In this regard, President Luis Arce said on Twitter that he met with García Sayán “with the firm commitment to promote the transformation of the judicial system for the benefit of the people who ask for justice.”
