Veronica Zapana S. / La Paz
Since 2019, at the request of the Government, the Legislature created two commissions to investigate cases of femicide. The families of the victims indicated that both teams did not give concrete results and assured that they are still waiting for justice.
“This is the third commission that has been formed to investigate impunity in femicide cases,” said the mother of a femicide victim and activist, Helen Álvarez.
He explained that in 2019 the first commission was formed and was led by Sonia Brito, then a deputy for the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). He indicated that the second was created in 2021 and was directed by Estefania Morales, also a deputy from the ruling party.
With the first -according to Álvarez- there was great expectation. “All the relatives of the victims until then have brought our papers and we have presented everything so that justice can be done, but unfortunately there was no result. In vain they have filled us with illusions,” he said.
The president of the Association of Family Victims of Femicide, Estela Quintana, agreed with Álvarez and assured that said commission was created in order to identify the bottlenecks in the judicial processes and speed up the cases.
“The commission concluded in December 2019, just when there were political problems in the country,” he explained.
According to Quintana, in conclusion, this commission indicated that “they did not have enough time to do more, but they told us that they sent a request to Sucre to audit cases such as Abigail, Celinda Panoso, among others, but they never arrived. results of the famous audit”.
Álvarez recalled that for the first commission, all the relatives of the victims went to tell the lawyers about the murder of their daughters, sisters or mothers. “Regardless of the revictimization to which they were exposed,” he explained.
The second commission was created in January 2021 in order to find out how access to justice in cases can be improved. Quintana said the organization “represented the files of various victims.” Some already with sentences that in many cases were not executed.
María René Álvarez, deputy of the opposition and member of the second commission, indicated that the function of the second commission was to see why there was a delay in justice because many cases had been in process for more than five years. “We have traveled to the different departments,” he said. He assured that this was his job.
The activist Álvarez indicated that the commission requested that the families receive collaboration with the execution of the sentence. “We had already completed at least 10 cases,” he said. “A whole legacy was given to him, but we did not receive any response,” he said. He regretted that for the presentation of these folders, again, the families were re-victimized because they had to count case by case, everything again.
After that report, they were not called again and on December 20 of last year they were surprised by the conclusion of the commission. “The document indicated that public officials were needed, that is, police officers, investigators, judges and prosecutors, but nothing was done that we had asked for,” Quintana said.
She recalled that as an organization it had already been identified that “there was corruption in these cases and there was favoritism for feminicides; For this reason, many were benefiting from house arrest, others did not have an enforceable sentence despite having a sentence and that is why they requested cessation. Unfortunately, no one did anything about it.”
The representative of the families said that as an organization, the members already knew about these acts of corruption from before and that is why they presented the cases to the two commissions. “We have even told them which prosecutor, which judge was handling the cases and acted in the same way. That is why we have asked them to investigate and suspend them, none of that has happened,” he said.
In that pilgrimage, the families of the victims met, joined and asked to be part of the commission, but were rejected. “They told us that the commission was from the Legislative branch and that is why we couldn’t even enter as civilians,” explained Quintanaa Page Seven.
According to Álvarez, no progress was made. Last Monday, in the women’s march, all the relatives met again demanding justice. “That means both commissions didn’t help anyone,” he said.
That is why, according to Álvarez, he now “distrusts” this third commission that the government formed on Tuesday. This commission, which will start working on Friday, has the task of having the first results in 120 days.
Álvarez now wonders if they will once again take the folders of their relatives to the new commission and they will be re-victimized again, recounting everything that happened. “I believe that the commission that concluded should deliver the folders with a summary of each case, so that we do not go through the entire process again. But if we have to, we will. We want justice,” he said.
According to the deputy, the files are in the commission, in addition to a work summary. All documents will be delivered to the new commission.
For the representatives, the creation of this commission is “just a smokescreen” to quench the thirst for justice. “That’s why I don’t trust him,” Álvarez explained.
