San Matías, territory without a State

A rancher and his helper have added to the number of victims of violence in San Matías. The capital of the Ángel Sandóval province in the department of Santa Cruz borders the long and unprotected border with Brazil. Both citizens, of Bolivian nationality, were shot dead while playing cards with other people in a house two blocks from the central square. The bloody event occurred late Monday afternoon. The hitmen were traveling on a motorcycle and one of them discharged 17 high-caliber projectiles on his two target targets. It is a sample of the viciousness with which the gunman acted before fleeing with his companion. In the same place, two other individuals were injured, although not seriously.

A prosecutor accompanied by a multidisciplinary team from the Police moved from this city to the crime scenen to investigate and collect the elements that allow “arriving at the historical truth of the facts,” summarized the representative of the Public Ministry. The content of a recorded message attributed to a Brazilian border guard also remains to be investigated, warning about the transfer of hitmen to San Matías and who would be the perpetrators of the double execution. The alleged ‘inaction’ of the Bolivian police officers who received the aforementioned message and did nothing to prevent the tragic event has been questioned.

Last September, in less than 24 hours, three murders were recorded under similar characteristics; two of them when the gunmen opened fire on their victims in a cockfight and a third in the middle of a public thoroughfare. Days before, in the same month, there was a macabre discovery of the body of a 19-year-old boy dismembered and charred in a municipality near the capital of the Sandoval province.

The investigations have not allowed to date the clarification of these shocking cases. From January to date, 10 murders have been recorded in San Matías where disputes are taking place between Brazilian criminal gangs and those from other countries, dedicated to drug trafficking and whose presence the government authorities flatly deny.

Averaging the 90s of the last century, EL DEBER carried out an investigation work on violence in San Matías. That time, the envoy of this journalistic house was able to verify the presence of Brazilian mobsters with extensive criminal records in their country and who roamed freely through the streets of the town, after crossing without any problem the border crossing that was barely controlled.

At that time the Matieña population reached 10,000 souls whose security was in charge of a handful of policemen who barely had a revolver and a bicycle for their ‘patrols’. To date, the number of citizens doubles, with resources from the Santa Cruz Governor’s Office a modern Integral Police Station was built, but the central government has not provided a sufficient number of uniformed officers or the necessary equipment to stop the violent wave, safeguard public order and ensure people’s peace of mind.

San Matías is a territory where the State is conspicuous by its absence. Its authorities and residents are tired of the ‘show’ put on by the Executive Branch with spectacular troop movements every time violence knocks on its doors. The urgent solutions are fundamental and definitive. Patches are useless for the serious problems that afflict that distant and forgotten region of the homeland.