Four people are charged for damaging the Columbus monument in La Paz

Page Seven Digital

The Mayor’s Office of La Paz reported this Friday that the Prosecutor’s Office formally charged four people accused of the destruction and deterioration of the Christopher Columbus monument, located on the Paseo del Prado in La Paz, on August 2, 2021.

“The Public Ministry ordered the formal accusation against those accused for causing, on August 2, 2021, damage to the monument of Christopher Columbus, after the La Paz commune presented sufficient evidence against those now accused,” reports a press release from the Municipal News Agency.

Those accused of committing the crimes of “destruction or deterioration of state assets and national wealth” are: Emma María RV, Leonardo Inti AH, Carla Pamela CG and Santiago Rolyn MS, according to a report by the Legal Affairs Directorate of the Mayor’s Office of La Paz.

According to the background of the investigation, on August 2, 2021, in celebration of the Day of the Agrarian Revolution, a group of activists gathered around the statue, which at that time had a corrugated metal fence.

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In the videos presented by the Mayor’s Office as evidence, two people are seen climbing the monument. Then it is seen that one of them hit the statue’s face with a combo until it broke its nose. Subsequently, the head of the monument is painted black.

In the formal indictment resolution sent to the Second Criminal Investigation Judge of the city of La Paz, the Public Ministry observed that the defendants do not have a fixed residence and permanent job, for which it considered that there is a risk of flight and obstruction of the research.

“The existence of risks of escape and obstruction, whose concurrence is generated through the collection of sufficient indicative elements that can escape, hide, modify, destroy evidence or negatively influence witnesses, falsely report or behave in a reticent manner and being able to induce third parties”, bases the precautionary requirement against the accused.