REPORT Nº 54/19
CASE 12.682
MERITS
BLAS VALENCIA CAMPOS ET AL.
BOLIVIA
I.
INTRODUCTION
1.
On January 8, 2003, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter the “InterAmerican Commission," “Commission," or “IACHR") received a petition filed by Blas Valencia Campos and 25
other persons (hereinafter “the petitioners” or "the alleged victims")1 alleging that the Plurinational State of
Bolivia (hereinafter “the Bolivian State,” “the State,” or “Bolivia”) bore international responsibility for alleged
illegal raid of their homes and acts of excessive violence on the part of State agents—including torture, sexual
violence, and incommunicado detention—in the course of their apprehension and subsequent detention.
2.
The Commission adopted Report on Admissibility No. 84/08 on October 30, 2008.2 On November 11,
2008, the Commission notified the parties of that report and placed itself at their disposal with a view to
reaching a friendly settlement. However, the appropriate conditions for initiating that procedure failed to
materialize. The parties were afforded the regulatory time limits to present additional observations as to
merits. Some of the petitioners presented their observations on January 9, 2009, 3 February 23, 2009, 4 and
January 14, 2015. 5 The State submitted its observations on merits on October 31, 2016. All information
received was duly relayed between the parties.
II.
SUBMISSIONS OF THE PARTIES
A. The Petitioners
3.
The petitioners allege that, following the robbery of a Prosegur truck at approximately 8:30 a.m. on
December 14, 2001, in which they were suspected to have taken part, at around 3:00 a.m. on December 18,
2001, their homes were raided by a large number of heavily armed state agents, who used excessive violence
during their apprehension and subsequent detention to obtain confessions and information about their
involvement in the robbery. Men, women, and children were threatened, handcuffed, severely beaten, and
stripped naked; the women were also sexually abused—one, who was pregnant, miscarried as a result of the
blows she received—and a child was abducted for several hours with the intention of forcing him to inform
about the robbery. The State agents stole jewelry and money from their homes. The petitioners were then taken
to facilities of the erstwhile Judicial Technical Police (PTJ)—now the Special Anti-Crime Force—where they
were subjected to further abuse, and where some were held incommunicado for up to three months. Two of
the petitioners allegedly died as a result of the mistreatment.
Those persons are Norma Lupe Alarcón de Valencia, Mercedes Valencia Chuquimia, Mauricio Valenzuela Valencia, Alvaro Taboada
Valencia, Claudia Valencia Alarcón, Carlos Eladio Cruz Añez, Patricia Catalina Gallardo Ardúz, María Fernanda Peña Gallardo, Freddy
Cáceres Castro, Oswaldo Lulleman Antezana, Raúl Oswaldo Lulleman Gutiérrez, Victoria Gutiérrez de Lulleman, Paola Lulleman de
Zaconeta, Luis F. Lulleman Gutiérrez, Julia Mamanu Mamani, Genaro Ahuacho Luna (Walter Herrera Flores), deceased, Carlos Enrique
Castro Ramírez, Alfredo Bazán la Rosas (José Miguel Abildo Díaz), Víctor Manuel Boggiano Bruzon (Juan Ramírez Ortega), Elacio Peña
Córdoba, Francis Elida Primentela Merino, Edwin Rodríguez Alarcón, Gabriel Valencia Alarcón, Alexis Valencia Alarcón, and Claudio
Valencia. It should be mentioned that subsequently Williams Gonzalo Orihuela Peñaranda and the Inter-American Association of Public
Defender Offices (AIDEF) became the representatives of a number of alleged victims, as detailed in footnotes 4 to 6.
2 IACHR, Report No. 84/08, Petition 40-03, Blas Valencia Campos et al., Bolivia, October 30, 2008.The IACHR declared the petition
admissible with respect to the rights protected in Articles 4, 5, 7, 11, 19, 8, and 25 of the American Convention, in conjunction with the
obligations established in Article 1(1) thereof; as well as to the right enshrined in Article 7 of the Convention of Belém do Pará, and the
provisions of Articles 1, 6, and 8 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture.
3 Brief presented by Williams Gonzalo Orihuela Peñaranda on behalf of Francis Elida Primentela Merino and Eladio Cruz Añez.
4 Brief presented by Blas Valencia Campos, representing himself for lack of economic means.
5 Brief presented by the Inter-American Association of Public Defender Offices on behalf of Víctor Manuel Boggiano Bruzzón, also known
as Juan Ramírez Ortega.
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