BOLIVIA, La Paz, 29 September 2023 (GPA). Former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and his defence minister, Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, reached an agreement with the families of the October 2003 victims to pay 10 million dollars in compensation in exchange for avoiding further legal action by the plaintiffs.

The agreement comes 20 years after the tragedy and a long civil lawsuit in the United States, where Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín fled to on Friday 17 October 2003, after carrying out a massacre in the cities of El Alto and La Paz. On that occasion, 70 people were reported dead.

“When we started the trial, everyone told us that Goni was above the law. (Now) I feel proud that the Aymara people have shown the world that no politician, no matter how rich or powerful, enjoys absolute impunity,” said one of the plaintiffs, Teófilo Baltazar, according to the Centre for Constitutional Rights.

However, the conciliation reached until today (28.09.2023), prohibits the families of the October 2003 victims from continuing with other legal actions against Goni and his former minister ‘Zorro Berzaín’ for the tragic events of 2003. It also specifies that the decision to conciliate does not imply that Goni and Sánchez Berzaín admit responsibility.

For this civil suit brought by nine families from El Alto in the United States, in 2018 a federal jury in Florida found Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín guilty of the murders and awarded $10 million in damages to the plaintiffs.

Following the settlement, “the defendants will withdraw their appeal and the 2018 jury verdict will stand,” reported the Center for Constitutional Rights, which sponsors the families of nine victims of the more than 70 killed by the Goni government’s actions in October 2003.

US activist and lawyer Thomas Becker, who represented the plaintiffs, noted that this trial shows that world leaders who have sought refuge in the United States after committing egregious abuses can be held accountable.

The human rights violations in this case occurred during demonstrations in the city of El Alto in September and October 2003, which were violently repressed by members of the armed forces and state police.

Among the plaintiffs were Etelvina Ramos Mamani and Eloy Rojas Mamani, whose eight-year-old daughter, Marlene, was killed in front of her mother when a bullet entered through the window of their home in the city of El Alto.

Another plaintiff against Goni and the “fox Berzaín” is Teófilo Baltazar Cerro, whose pregnant wife was killed when a bullet penetrated the wall of their house.

Another family member is Felicidad Rosa Huanca Quispe, whose 69-year-old father was shot and killed on the side of the road; and Gonzalo Mamani Aguilar, whose father was shot and killed while tending his crops.

Then Defence Minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, who led the brutal repression in September and October 2003, mistakenly believed he would quell the popular revolt by killing some protesters.

During the three-week trial in 2018, witnesses told of tanks rolling through the streets and the military firing for hours on end, including inside houses and at fleeing unarmed civilians. The dead numbered in the dozens and the wounded in the hundreds between 10 September and 17 October 2003.

Evo Morales’ government made a commitment to extradite Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and Carlos Sánchez Berzaín from the United States to Bolivia, a promise it failed to keep. Over the years, the death toll increased as a result of the severity of the injuries. All the victims of October 2003 were abandoned by the government.

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