17
1971 and 1973, illegal detentions, violent entries into homes, torture as a “softening” tool
in order to gather information, and subsequent exile if freedom was granted were all
regular practices. Moreover, after an individual was arrested, his or her next of kin were
commonly asked to go to the facility where the individual was confined, usually after he or
she had already been seriously injured. Therefore, on many occasions, repressive practices
also affected the next of kin of detained individuals.34
55. There is no certainty regarding the approximate number of victims of political
violence during this period. However, according to information of the Association of
Relatives of the Detainees, Disappeared Persons and Martyrs for National Liberation
[Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos, Desaparecidos y Mártires por la Liberación
Nacional] (hereinafter ASOFAMD, according to its initials in Spanish), a civil society
organization in Bolivia,35 during the regime of Hugo Banzer, in addition to the torture
committed and the mass exile of hundreds of political and union leaders, at least 68
persons were forcibly disappeared, 35 of these under “Operation Condor,” and 78 persons
suffered extrajudicial executions.36
56. In 1979, after the coup d’état that overthrew Hugo Banzer and brought about the
return of presidential elections, the Legislature of the National Congress initiated a trial
against former President Hugo Banzer Suárez, among others.37 Within the framework of
these proceedings, on September 5, 1979, the ASOFAMD sent “a partial list of the victims
of General Hugo B[a]nzer Suáre[z] who were sacrificed in prison, tortured, or persecuted”;
Rainer Ibsen Cárdenas was among those named in that list.38 Said list refers to 89 people
34
Cf. Declaration rendered before public notary by expert witness Juan Cristóbal Soruco Quiroga (case file
on the merits, volume III, folio 658).
35
Cf. Declaration rendered during the publig hearing (supra para. 8) of witness Delia Cortez.
36
Cf. ASOFAMD. Report of August, 2997. 35 Years After the Dictatorship of Hugo B[a]nzer Suárez 19712006 (case file of appendixes to the application, appendix 4, folios 1561 to 1566). Also, the State mentioned
during the public hearing (supra para. 8) that “the Plan Condor event […] consisted of systematic human right
violations.”
37
Cf. Sections of the impeachment trial against Hugo Banzer Suárez (case file of appendixes to the
application, appendix 20, folios 1801 to 1806, and case file of appendixes to the brief of pleadings and motions,
PD-24, folios 1597 to 1712); declaration of expert witness Waldo Albarracín Sánchez rendered at the public
hearing held on April 13, 2010, in Lima, Peru and Barcelona International Studies and Documentation Center
(CIDOB), Biography of Hugo Banzer Suárez (case file of appendixes to the application, appendix 3, folios 1536 to
1537),
available
at:
http://www.cidob.org/es/documentacion/biografias_lideres_politicos/america_del_sur/bolivia/hugo_banzer_suar
ez (last visit: August 2, 2010).
38
Cf. Sections of the impeachment trial against Hugo Banzer Suárez (case file of appendixes to the
application, appendix 20, folios 1802 to 1803, and case file of appendixes to the brief of pleadings and motions,
PD-24, folios 1698 to 1699).