Sunday, 7 March 2010

Bolivia: Military Refuses Full Disclosure

Via Argentina's Pagina/12 comes a report on Bolivia's armed forces, which had been ordered to submit some of their archives to a court.

The documents relate to three cases of forced disappearance which occurred in 1980-81 during the dictatorship of Luis García Meza.

The armed forces have produced a list of military personnel for the judge, but this does not go far enough, since the order was for more detailed information.

"We are going to continue fighting until the armed forces comply with the law, and don't just produce the 1980 archives, but the ones they have from 1964 onwards, when they started to disappear 170 people," added Urquieta [president of Asofamd, an association of relatives of the disappeared].
The family members of the disappeared are demanding that president Evo Morales intervene to force the military to reveal the dictatorship archives. "We have received declarations of support and interest from the government, but when it comes down to it there is no political will. This doesn't explain why, as president Evo Morales is head of the armed forces, he doesn't instruct them to proceed with opening up the documents," said Erbol María Soledad Quiroga, daughter of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz [a disappeared journalist and writer]. [trans mine]

Archivos escondidos (Pagina/12)

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