Bolivia’s highest court on Tuesday convicted five former top military commanders of genocide for an army crackdown on riots over poverty and political marginalization in October 2003 that killed at least 64 civilians and wounded 400.
See AP’s report here.
The court, the Supreme Tribunal, also convicted two former cabinet ministers of complicity in the killings and sentenced each to three years.
Indicted in the case but not tried was Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, Bolivia's president at the time of the killings and now in exile in the United States.
The longest sentences were meted out to Roberto Claros, the armed forces chief during the crackdown, and Juan Veliz, the army commander.
Both were given 15 years in prison for "genocide in the form of a bloody massacre" and murder.
The 2003 protests - and crackdown – known as ‘Black October’ provided a turning point in Bolivian politics: The president was forced into exile, the country’s traditional political parties collapsed and Evo Morales, one of the protest leaders, won the presidency two years later.
