13.
The petitioner stated that according to witnesses, his body was taken to the
Army General Staff in one of the ambulances used in the violent assault on the COB. The
petitioner emphasized that according to what the accused themselves stated, both Marcelo
Quiroga Santa Cruz and Juan Carlos Flores Bedregal were last seen at the Army General Staff
but it is not clear whether they were alive. The petitioner stated that since that day the family
has no knowledge of their brother or the location of his remains, although they began a
tireless search in which they have submitted complaints to all agencies.
14.
Regarding those complaints, the petitioner stated that on that same day,
July 17, 1980, the relatives of Juan Carlos Flores denounced his disappearance nationally and
internationally, which fact was recorded by the International Red Cross, Amnesty
International, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the
Commission of the [World] Council of Churches, and other institutions. The petitioner added
that months later the International Red Cross informed his relatives regarding the murder of
the alleged victim, but without any clarification regarding the circumstances or the location
of his remains.
15.
The petitioner noted that after the return to democracy, in 1984 the
government created the National Commission on the Disappeared with the mandate to
investigate forced disappearances for political motives. She stated that family members again
reported the disappearance of the alleged victim to this commission, which conducted some
investigations in which police agents of the repressive apparatus of the dictatorship declared
that the lifeless bodies of Marcelo Quiroga and Juan Carlos Flores were collected and handled.
She added that these police agents provided false information that led to three exhumations
of remains that upon study were determined not to belong to the alleged victim.
16.
The petitioner stated that subsequently the relatives of Juan Carlos Flores
Bedregal asked the Justice Committee of the House of Delegates to initiate a proceeding
against Luís García Meza and his collaborators in the coup d’état of 1980. She stated that
once the Parliament issued a resolution on the accusation – which included the assault on the
COB and the murder of the alleged victim – the relatives became a civil party to the trial of
responsibilities before the Supreme Court of Justice. In the view of the petitioner, although
the trial concluded on April 21, 1993 with the conviction of the former dictator and eight other
implicated persons, due to the characteristics of the proceeding, the murders that occurred
during the takeover of the COB were not made clear nor was the location of the bodies
determined.
17.
The petitioner stated that due to errors in that investigation, on October 23,
1997 a commission was created to investigate the disappearance of Marcelo Quiroga Santa
Cruz and thus that of Juan Carlos Flores, since both disappeared under the same
circumstances. She stated that in 1999, based on the evidence gathered, this Commission
delivered a report to the Superior Court of the District of La Paz recommending that a
proceeding be opened up against some twenty repressive agents, among them military,
police, and paramilitary personnel, based on their participation in the attack on the COB.
18.
She indicated that in response to this report, in February 1999 the Public
Prosecutor’s Office initiated a proceeding against 17 individuals, in which the relatives of the
alleged victim have acted as an intervening party. The petitioner emphasized the most
relevant stages in the process, relating that on April 18, 2001 the Examining Magistrate issued
a final order to investigate the crimes of armed insurrection against the security and
sovereignty of the State, terrorism, concealment, and murder. She indicated that the final
hearing was held in the court proceeding on September 26, 2007, leading to the reading of
the conclusions.