Anti-smuggling military operations leave 3 gunshot wounds in Tarija

Three people were injured by gunshots in separate operations. executed by agents of the Strategic Command for the Fight Against Smuggling (CEO), According to the commander of the Villa Monte Border Police, Colonel Jorge Victor Rocha. The military operated on route 11, which connects Tarija with Paraguaythe night of Tuesday and early Wednesday.

The first victim is Ivana Vanesa Pérez, 21 years old. According to her mother’s account, Vanessa moved to her cattle station, which is located on the route to Paraguay. She was walking with her family and suddenly she was intercepted by the CEO’s soldiers, who started shooting “for no reason”, leaving her seriously injured. So much so, says her mother, that the blood from Vanessa’s gunshot wounds ended up splattering on the body of her five-year-old sonwho was on board the vehicle.

Immediately, the woman was transferred to the Villa Montes hospital. Lorena Mamani, in charge of this hospital, reported that the woman entered with an entrance wound of approximately five centimeterswith irregular edges in the region of the left shoulder and without an exit hole.

Due to the seriousness of her condition and after the transfusion of two units of blood and being stabilized, she was referred to the San Juan de Dios Regional Third Level Hospital, in the city of Tarija, for an assessment by the thoracic surgeon.

Two other gunshot wounds

But this was not the only case. On Wednesday morning, the commander of the Villa Montes Border Police, Colonel Jorge Victor Rocha, reported that it Two other people were reported with less serious gunshot wounds.during the same operation on the route to Paraguay, but at different times.

Border Police press conference on this case:

The second victim is a 21-year-old man named Daniel Pavia García. According to the police report, he was wounded around 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, presumably by a shot by the CEO’s military. The young man was evacuated to a private clinic in Yacuiba, where he receives medical attention.

The third victim is Shirley Ferreira, 22 years old. According to the police report, the young woman was traveling on the road on a motorcycle when she was hit by a fire projectile in the right thigh of her leg and was quickly evacuated to a clinic in Villa Montes.

“Investigative tasks are being carried out under the command of the Felcc to establish the circumstances of the three events that I refer to, participants in it and the reason that led to the use of fire will be part of the investigation what is being done and in the course of the week it will become clearer”, said Rocha, in a press conference.

He also reported that the CEO staff apprehended a person of legal age during Tuesday night operations. The reason, according to the military, was the harassment of several vehicles after the kidnapping of a minibus that was transporting contraband products.

They shot “by accident”

The departmental director of the Special Force to Fight Crime (Felcc) of Tarija, Colonel Raúl Castro Ortiz, at a press conference, referred to the case of Ivana Vanesa Pérez, said that, apparently, the CEO’s team would have shot her thinking she was a smuggler.

He mentioned that, preliminarily, it is known that the vehicle in which the victim was aboard suddenly turned on its lightsso the CEO’s agents thought they were assailants and proceeded to shoot.

“According to the first information, it would be an event where they thought they were smugglers. They, being on the road, They saw a light turn on suddenly and they shot him, thinking they were assailants.”Castro Ortiz assured.