Human Rights Protest at US Embassy Attacked with Tear Gas

Yesterday a peaceful protest march headed for the US Embassy in La Paz was attacked with tear gas by Bolivian police assigned to protect the Embassy. The protest, organized by the Bolivian Assembly on Human Rights, was in support of the formal request by the Bolivian government that former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada be extradited from the US to stand trial in Bolivia.

The protest included many family members of the more than 50 people killed by armed troops sent out by Sanchez de Lozada in October 2003 to break up protests against his plans to export the country's gas to the US. Even his own Vice President broke with Sanchez de Lozada over his violent repression, leading to "Goni's" resignation and escape to self-exile in the US. The Bolivian government has since indicted the former President on murder charges and two months ago filed a formal extradition request with the US government.

"We wanted to hold a peaceful protest in front of the Embassy to press our demand for Sanchez de Lozada's extradition," the Human Rights Assembly President, Sacha Lorenti, told me by phone from La Paz this morning. Before the families of the victims could reach the fortress-like US compound, they were beaten back with a rain of tear gas.

The US role in the October 2003 killings goes well beyond giving aid and comfort to the deposed President. In the face of his own Vice President breaking with him, huge protests calling for his resignation, and a nationwide hunger strike by respected human rights and religious leaders demanding the same, Sanchez de Lozada held on to power and continued the killings for nearly a full week, primarily because of the almost daily proclamations of support for him issued by US officials. Absent those declarations, the Bolivians killed in the last week of Goni's government would likely be alive today.

Lorenti says that families of Goni's victims plan to march on the Embassy every Thursday, regardless of the threat against them. The groups are also considering making a request to meet directly with the US Ambassador to press their demand for Goni's extradition. The US has long demanded the right to have Bolivian citizens extradited to the US for trial, when charged with certain drug-related crimes.

Photos of the protest and its break up by Bolivian police can be found here. The account of the repression yesterday in La Paz, in the Bolivian daily Opinion, can be found here.