Luis Escobar / La Paz
The families of victims of femicides propose the payment of a bonus for minors who were orphaned, they also propose the granting of life imprisonment to rapists and femicides.
With the aim of giving their contributions to the national authorities, the families of the victims brought the proposals to the first meeting of the Commission for the Review of Cases of Rape and Femicide, but they were not allowed to enter the meeting.
“We will present a bill that proposes life imprisonment for rapists, murderers and femicides, and the delivery of a life annuity for femicide orphans. It is a contribution based on all the acts of violence that we experience,” Estela Quintana, representative of the Association of Families of Victims in Search of Justice in Bolivia, explained to Page Seven.
Quintana is also a relative of a victim of femicide and justice delay. She is the aunt of Abigail, a young woman who was murdered in 2019. “We are not only criticizing, we are working on this project that we came to present and we hope it will be taken into account,” she said.
This association proposes the delivery of a life annuity to “give a better quality of life to minors, whose mothers were murdered and their fathers are behind bars. According to Quintana, many children are in the care of their maternal grandparents and “live in precariousness.”
This organization also demands that murderers, femicides and rapists remain in prison to fully serve their sentences.
The representative denounced that now the families of the victims must be “every day” in court trying to respond to all the “chicanerías” of criminals seeking to get out of jail.
Once they are out, the families of the victims fear for their safety. In many cases they receive threats.
The demands and mobilizations were presented after hearing the case of Richard Choque, the femicide and serial rapist who murdered a young woman in 2013 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Despite the sentence, he obtained his freedom in 2019 and in his request he alleged health problems. In his statement he said that he got this benefit by paying $3,500 without undergoing any physical exam and last year he murdered two other teenagers aged 17 and 15. In addition, it was discovered that he killed his cousin in 2011.
“We have more than 15 cases with sentences that are not complied with and in which several courts made up of judges, prosecutors and lawyers are involved. Those names are repetitive and we want to present them (to the authorities) so that they do something. We have been on a pilgrimage for more than three years in search of justice,” he said.
Quintana indicated that the sector requested the intervention of the courts and that the sentences be carried out. Many (criminals) have already been sentenced, but (relatives) continue on pilgrimage because they do not execute. With their lawyers, they appeal and delay the process until it reaches eight years and nullify the actions, ”he assured.
The representative said that 3% of femicide cases in the country reached an enforceable sentence and 10% got a sentence, but it is not yet enforceable. The rest falls by the wayside. They also change the typifications of the crimes for other more minor ones.
Nivia Coca, representative of the Women of Fire organization of Cochabamba and of relatives who are victims of femicide, came to La Paz to request an audit of processes that have irregularities. “We have criminals who left the prisons because they resorted to various chicanery,” she explained.
Coca assured that they came to denounce “not only the murderers, but the bad prosecutors and judges.” She mentioned that a judge released three femicides and that she is still carrying out her work in Sacaba. “We presented all the evidence to the Justice Delay Commission two years ago and to this day he is still a judge,” she said.
The representative reported that in Cochabamba in 2021, 15 femicides were registered and two in the first month of this year. The first case of this management did not even have its precautionary hearing. “Most of the cases are in the execution process between two and four years. That time is used by the murderers to come out with the justification that they are in poor health. It is not a novelty, we know that they have these chicaneries and they leave with house arrest, ”she said.
The Government promoted two other commissions in the last three years. Quintana indicated that the first was carried out in 2019 and “never came to an audit.” “We went to the second commission and presented the same cases. In December they concluded that more officials are needed. What we need is to eliminate corruption,” he assured.
