Juan Perez Munguia / La Paz
On December 14, 2013, then President Evo Morales appointed his high military command. Among those sworn in was Gonzalo Alcón, who was appointed to the position of Commander of the Navy. Today, the former military chief is accused of protecting, as head of the Judicial Council (CM), his brother Rafael Alcón, the judge who released the serial femicide Richard Choque.
A year later, in December 2014, Gonzalo Alcón went into passive service. After a little more than two years, in June 2017, he presented himself to the pre-selection process for the CM, carried out by the Legislative Assembly, where the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) had two thirds.
The soldier and lawyer was selected by the parliamentary commission, made up mostly of masistas, to be a candidate in the judicial elections on December 3 of that administration. After being elected, Alcón assumed the presidency of the Judiciary in 2018, a position he also held in 2019. In his last administration, his brother released Choque, sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder.
Last week, the Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, pointed out to former magistrate Gonzalo Alcón that he had protected Judge Rafael Alcón. “The brother of the judge (Alcón), who has been accused of malfeasance, was at times president of the Council of the Magistracy, adviser to the Council of the Magistracy. That instance had to evaluate the performance of this judge, prosecute bad judges, elements that prevaricate and act against the law, there was a level of protection, ”he said.
In July 2021, the justice system suspended Alcón and former magistrate Dolka Gómez from the CM. They were denounced for nepotism. Both former authorities were involved in the disappearance of 200 files of complaints against judges, members and prosecutors filed in 2018.
With political endorsement of the ballot
The passive service soldier and lawyer Jorge Santistevan stated that since the MAS came to govern in 2006, no military officer assumed command if they were not trusted by Evo Morales.
“The commanders in the MAS era were close to Evo Morales. Gonzalo Alcón was benefited as a commander by the trust he had with Morales, “he said.
Santistevan indicated that Alcón, between 2009 and 2013, was appointed to a commission in the Government Palace, for which he was closer to Morales.
Arturo Yáñez, former president of the Bolivian National Bar Association, pointed out that in the 2017 pre-selection process, applicants who had endorsement were placed on the court ballot.
“Most of the current magistrates are unknown in the forum of lawyers. To pass the MAS filter in the Legislative Assembly you had to be a MAS candidate. Gonzalo Alcón was not a well-known lawyer”, he emphasized.
Amilcar Barral, a former UD deputy, recalled that many who later became magistrates were selected by MAS legislators without experience in law.
“In 2017 the masistas selected candidates, they shouted the numbers from which they were selected. The names were already on the lists of those who were going to go to the election, that’s why the invalid vote was 65%”, she detailed.
multiple tasks
The curriculum that Gonzalo Alcón presented during the 2017 pre-selection process before the Legislature details that in 2000 he graduated from the UMSA Law degree, while serving as a military man. From 2001 to 2004 he was a professor at that university, and between 2006 and 2007 at UPEA.
From 2000 to 2014 he was head of the Navy Division, member and lawyer of the Military Court. He was also head of legal advice to the Ministry of Defense, adviser to the directorates of Maritime Interests and Port Authority, chief of staff of the Navy, unit commander, chief of operations and commander of the Navy.
In 2008 he graduated as an accounting assistant technician and in 2011 he graduated as a political scientist from UMSA. When he went into passive service, in 2015, he was an external advisor to the Ministry of Rural Development, for two months, in the management of César Cocarico.
Yáñez and Santistevan agreed that it is very difficult for a military man to be able to hold so many positions at the same time and finish two careers when he was doing his career in the Navy. They added that he was also not known in the field of law.
2013
IT’S THE YEAR
in which Gonzalo Alcon
was appointed by Morales
as Commander of the Navy.
