[progchat_action] Ex Bolivian Prez faces lawsuit in US
 
Resent-Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:12:54 -0500 (CDT)

(It appears that exile may not protect "El Gringo" from having
answer for the bloodshed that happened at his instigation when he
was President in Bolivia.  Funny how those who hate Hugo Chavez so
much now, were so silent about the crimes of Sanchez de Lozada in
2003. SR)

Ex-President of Bolivia Faces Suit in U.S.

Plaintiffs Blame Sanchez de Lozada for Deaths During Protests in
2003

By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September
26, 2007; Page A09

NEW YORK, Sept. 25 -- A lawsuit to be unsealed Wednesday in a U.S.
District Court in Maryland seeks civil damages against Gonzalo
Sanchez de Lozada -- the former president of Bolivia now living in
exile in Chevy Chase -- for allegedly presiding over a 2003 government
crackdown that left 67 civilians dead and 400 injured.

Legal experts say the case, filed by a group of 10 victims' family
members, marks the most notable civil suit against a foreign former
head of state residing in the United States since legal action was
brought against former Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos in
the 1980s. The suit seeks damages against Sanchez de Lozada for
allegedly authorizing his military to use deadly force during a
series of protests that resulted in an alleged civilian "massacre."
A similar suit is also scheduled to be unsealed Wednesday in Florida
against Jose Carlos Sanchez Berzain, a former Sanchez de Lozada
government minister who now lives in Miami.

Sanchez de Lozada, 77, was a two-time president of Bolivia heralded
by foreign investors as a champion of free-market reforms in his
nation.

Democratically elected twice, the last time in 2002, he and his
government were effectively overthrown by a series of popular
revolts, in part led by Evo Morales, the leftist firebrand who was
elected president of Bolivia in December 2005.

The former president and his advisers have repeatedly denied charges
of a massacre, calling them politically motivated spin by the
left-wing groups whose violent revolts led to his early resignation
in October 2003. The plaintiffs said he was served with the papers
Tuesday.

Yet the cases -- particularly if they go to trial -- could prove
embarrassing for the Bush administration. Sanchez de Lozada is one
of several Latin American former leaders who were staunchly backed
by the United States but have now fallen into disgrace in their
home countries, often amid charges of excessive force or massive
corruption. Sanchez de Lozada fled into exile in the United States
on Oct. 17, 2003. He has since resettled in the Washington suburbs.

Although sources familiar with his legal status said he has not
officially been granted asylum, he has been allowed to live on U.S.
soil as a companion to his wife, who is studying in the Washington
area on a student visa.

The suit, filed with the aid of leading human rights lawyers,
including those from Harvard University and the New York-based
Center for Constitutional Rights, is also aiming to re-energize
"universal jurisdiction" -- the idea that foreign leaders, no matter
where they reside, should be held accountable for abuses committed
in their homelands. Such arguments were used when former Chilean
dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested for domestic abuses on a
Spanish warrant while receiving medical treatment in London in 1998.

"This case goes to the heart of preventing impunity," said James
Cavallaro, executive director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard
Law School, who, along with other human rights lawyers, assisted
the Bolivian victims' family members in filing their case.

The Bolivian Supreme Court last month approved a formal extradition
request for Sanchez de Lozada and two of his ministers to face trial
in their home country on similar charges. Bolivia's ambassador to
the United States, Gustavo Guzman, said those documents are now
being translated and will be delivered to the State Department
within four weeks.

Sanchez de Lozada did not return phone calls Tuesday. But he has
repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, telling the Miami Herald in
2004 that he authorized only "appropriate" force to quell unrest.
Mauricio Balcazar, one of his top advisers, said Tuesday that he
thinks Sanchez de Lozada's political enemies in Bolivia were behind
the civil suit, a charge that both plaintiffs and human rights
lawyers deny.

"There was no massacre, there was a sedition that generated
confrontation,"

Balcazar said. "There is no legal support [for] an accusation. . .
. This is not a crime in Bolivia or in the United States."

The charges largely center on a highly volatile period in Bolivia
in September and October 2003, during what many have come to call
the Gas Wars.

Sanchez de Lozada had backed a controversial plan to build a gas
pipeline through Chile to facilitate energy sales to the United
States, Mexico and other nations. It became a lighting rod for
growing civil unrest, particularly among anti-government activists.

Tensions dramatically escalated when government troops entered the
La Paz suburb of El Alto on Oct. 12, 2003, sparking a bloody clash
that left at least 30 dead. Sanchez de Lozada resigned in the ensuing
days and fled Bolivia on a commercial flight to Miami.

The suit insists that Sanchez de Lozada should be held responsible,
additionally alleging that some of the fatalities resulted from
government snipers. Sanchez de Lozada's supporters, however, said
some of the protesters also were armed, and that in the chaos of
those days, it is impossible to tell who shot whom.

Although the alleged crimes took place in Bolivia, the plaintiffs
are in part relying on the 1789 Alien Tort Statute, once applied
to foreign pirates to collect civil damages in the United States.
Legal observers say Sanchez de Lozada may argue that U.S courts
have no jurisdiction or that he enjoys immunity given his status
as head of state at the time. But U.S. courts overruled those
arguments during the Marcos case, in which victims' families were
awarded a judgment of $2 billion.

"Sanchez de Lozada should pay for what happened in our country,"
said Juan Patricio Quispe Mamani, 33, who says his brother, a
construction worker, was shot in the back as he went to secure the
family's house in El Alto when government security forces moved in
on Oct. 12, 2003. "We want justice."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/25/AR2007092502
252.html?hpid=sec-nation

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