framework of impunity that benefited the systematic practice of illegal detentions, tortures and forced disappearance of people.”7 22. 47. Within Bolivia, several bodies and authorities also recognized that a military coup had occurred and denounced the repressive policy implemented during the dictatorship of Luis García Meza. The Supreme Court of Justice determined the existence of a planned policy of intimidation, harassment, and extermination of members of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and other opposition figures, using irregular armed groups or paramilitary for those purposes. The Permanent Assembly for Human Rights pointed out that during the military government "more than 500 murders and forced disappearances were committed, nearly 4,000 people were arrested, and thousands exiled, in addition to routine illicit detentions [...] inspired by the notorious Doctrine of National Security and the need to 'root out any vestiges of communism'. A policy was pursued that blatantly violated human right and physically eliminated those who opposed the regime […].”8 1. The assault on the COB on July 17, 1980 23. As regards the political rights situation, the Inter-American Commission noted in its 1981 Country Report that in the days prior to the military coup and given the general elections held in Bolivia on June 29, 1980 there was an atmosphere of insecurity and uncertainty about whether the Armed Forces would allow that electoral process to go forward, after a series of earlier military coups. In that context, various community-based groups agreed to establish the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy (CONADE), made up of the Bolivian Confederation of Workers (COB), political parties, religious organizations, the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, and other community-based civic institutions. Its purpose was to alert citizens and prepare them to put up peaceful resistance in the form of a general strike and roadblocks in the event of a disruption of the democratic order.9 24. Regarding what happened on July 17, 1980, during the military uprising, the Supreme Court of Justice established that the Government Palace had been taken by force of arms and that the then interim President Lidia Gueiler Tejada and her ministerial cabinet had been arrested. The Court also established that the COB had been violently attacked while a meeting was being held "to see how to prevent the coup d’état from materializing." The Supreme Court determined that, during those acts, several murders had been committed and a number of people arrested and taken to the barracks at Army Headquarters, "where all the prisoners were being taken, including the leaders of CONADE, ministers, journalists and radio and television personnel, along with the [...] dead and wounded.”10 25. The IACHR also documented the assault on the headquarters of the COB, indicating that the CONADE had been meeting there to draft a declaration decreeing the strike and ordering road blocks; among other events of July 17, 1980.11 In both its 1981 country report and in its Resolution 27/81, the IACHR took it as established that the arrest and death of the then presidential candidate for the Socialist Party and I/A Court H.R. Case of Ticona Estrada et al. Bolivia Merits, Reparations, and Costs. Judgment of November 27, 2008. Series C No. 191, paras. 45-47. 8 See: Appendix 1. Decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation of April 15, 1993. Attached to the State's communication of March 25, 2010; and International Seminar: Impunity and its Effects on Democratic Processes." Santiago, Chile, December 14, 1996: Impunity and Democracy: IMPUNITY IN BOLIVIA: Democratic Regimes in Latin America and Impunity. By Waldo Albarracín of the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights in Bolivia. Available at: www.derechos.org/koaga/xi/2/albarracin.html. 9 IACHR. Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Republic of Bolivia. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.53 doc.6 rev.2. October 13, 1981. Chapter IV on political rights. 10 Appendix 1. Decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation of April 15, 1993. Attached to the State’s communication of March 25, 2010. 11 IACHR. Report on the Situation of Human Rights in the Republic of Bolivia. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.53 doc.6 rev.2. October 13, 1981. Chapter IV on political rights. 7 5