The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) has condemned the Bolivian State for the forced disappearance of trade unionist Jorge Flores Bedregal, who disappeared during the 1980 coup d’état perpetrated by General Luis García Meza.
«The State is responsible for the forced disappearance of Juan Carlos Flores Bedregal, the violation of the rights to recognition as a person before the law, to life, to personal integrity and personal liberty,» states point 3 of the IACHR judgment.
Flores was shot on the steps of the headquarters of the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) during the uprising and since then the whereabouts of his remains are unknown. His family, four sisters, never obtained reparations in the Bolivian courts.
Now, 43 years later, the IACHR recognizes the failures of the State to protect the lives of people and proposes reforms to be implemented by the current government within a maximum period of one year, which will be verified by a follow-up commission.
The Bolivian State must also pay damages to the victims and costs to the IACHR. The president of the hearing, Ricardo Pérez Manrique, emphasized that the decision was taken unanimously by all the lawyers, according to the Bolivian newspaper ‘El Deber’.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
