Down on his knees, Carlos Quispe Quispe begged them to stop beating him. The mob had destroyed everything around him; the merciless punishment was not going to stop. Radio station FM 90.7, Radio Municipal in Pucarani was in tatters. “This is the mouth that talks!” That is how, shouting, he had been identified by the chairman of the local Vigilance Committee, Julio Quisbeth Quispe, after the mob kicked in the door, smashed all the equipment (the sound mixer, the broadcast control computer and the sound booth) and began to beat him with sticks and whips until the police intervened, according to his family and the municipal legal advisor, Samuel Lima.

In other municipal offices, on whose first floor the radio station is located, the chaos was similar. Quispe Quispe only managed to cover his head with his hands. They thought he was dead. He got away by his own means, however. He was taken to the local health center. From there he took a bus to El Alto, near the Bolivian capital of La Paz, some 30 miles from Pucarani. That same day, Thursday, March 27, 2008, he was due to go to a private medical center with one of his brothers. The attack had been at 1:30 p.m. They looked him over but they failed to take an MRI because of the absence of the professional in charge of that area.

The following day, Friday, a doctor from the Public Prosecutor’s Office discovered wounds, bruises and lacerations on his body. His lifeless body was taken on Saturday to the Clinicas Hospital in La Paz. He had died from cranial brain traumatism, the forensic doctor found. He had in fact died from the brutal beating he had received two days earlier at the radio station, his workplace. He was a journalist. He paid with his life the protest by some 300 people mobilized by the Vigilance Committee (a community organization) against the mayor of Pucarani, Alejandro Mamani Quispe, elected in December 2005 at the same time as President Evo Morales.

As Mayor Mamani Quispe was not in town two groups of peasants coming from nearby rural areas who had got out of trucks in the main square charged at everything they found. The knocked down the main door of city hall, they broke everything they could and carried off computers that were due to be delivered to the community.

Initially Quispe Quisbeth, the main accused, did not heed a call to present himself to testify before the First Criminal Court of El Alto. He was seen in Chijasivi, the community where he lives, two hours from Pucarani. He denied to people close to him that he had anything to do with the reprisal that led to Quispe Quispe’s death. He then disappeared, according to Reporters Without Borders. The police left the subpoena stuck to the door of his house.

The other accused, Efraín Ticonipa, leader of the Vigilance Committee, and local council members Edwin Huambo Espinoza, Nicolaza Cruz, Rufina Serna and Basilio Poma, alleged they “feared for their lives” and that is why they followed suit in signing statements outside the jurisdiction of their municipality.

The proceedings, based in Pucarani, refer to the assault on the building, the destruction of the radio station and the theft of equipment. The city, a typical Bolivian Altiplano one located 12,000 feet above sea level with a sparse population distributed among 13 counties and 87 communities, has no court. Traditionally court cases were transferred to Achacachi, near Lake Titicaca, but because the charges were raised to include to homicide this one finally remained in El Alto.

“This case shows negligence by the authorities and those who administer justice in Bolivia, but also a lack of solidarity and care among the reporters covering the issue of security and the labor union leaders and professional journalists,” said Edgar Ramos Andrade, a journalist himself. “What is needed is joint national and international action if it is to be solved.”

Problems of jurisdiction

The case ended up in two parts – the storming of the municipal building for offenses of aggravated robbery, among others, and the murder of Quispe Quispe. On the first part there were two people arrested, but they remained free on motions of habeas corpus. On the second aspect, more important and more annoying because it dealt with the death of a person, there was delay due to “problems of jurisdiction” – the crime was committed in Pucarani, it should have been dealt with in El Alto and has been transferred to Achacachi.

Two days after Quispe Quispe’s death Gregorio Blanco Tórrez, the public prosecutor assigned by the Homicide Division of the Special Anti-Crime Froce (Felc) in El Alto, with the approval of the La Pa district public prosecutor, Jimmy Pareja Bonifaz, informed the criminal judge on duty at the time of the start of investigations into the presumed homicide “in police investigation case number 691/08 (death of Carlos Quispe Quispe).”

The Public Prosecutor’s Office went on to become the formal accuser. Quispe Quispe, born in La Paz on July 9, 1978, was 31 years old. He came from a typical low-class Aymara migrant family that lived on the outskirts of the Bolivian capital. His family was made up of the father, Alberto Antonio Quispe Quispe, an auto mechanic, and two brothers, Jaime, also a mechanic, and Juan, an architect. In his humble adobe home on the mountainside lived three families, all close relatives.

Despite the beating he had received Quispe Quispe returned to Puicarani the same day of the attack after being seen by doctors Lisseth Ibarra Barrientos and Ernesto Coaquira at the Kopling Hospital. Pending for the next day was the MRI. That night he was in contact with the deputy mayor of the town of Koana, Esteban Mamani. He confirmed that the radio station equipment had been destroyed.

At the request of pubic prosecutor Mery Cano Serrano he was checked by forensic doctor Rubén Solís Pacheco, scientific chief of forensic medicine of the La Paz Forensic Research Institute, with the following results, recorded in report number 3330:
• Background: Assault on Thursday, March 27, 2008.
• A bruise approximately 3 centimeters long covered by a dressing over hairy skin to the left parietal
area.
• A blurred sutured wound of approximately 1.5 centimeters to the right side of the forehead.
• Excoriations to the left temporal area, right end of upper lip and left side of neck.
• Excoriations of approximately 3 centimeters in length to the chin.
• Ecchymosis to the back of the right hand.
• Superficial laceration to the right leg, prior pain in the thorax, probably due to post-traumatic neuropathy
• Ecchymosis to right upper eyelid.
• Diagnosis: 12 days of rest are prescribed, unless there are complications, a checkup by a neurologist being recommended.

At 11:05 p.m. on Saturday, March 29, one day after the medical examination, Quispe Quispe’s lifeless body was admitted to the Clinicas Hospital in La Paz, according to the doctor on duty, Dennis Silva Guzmán. He had died from a “cranial cerebral traumatism,” as it was listed in the death certificate issued by the National Electoral Court civil registry, certificate number 0089523, signed by forensic doctor Raúl Caballero, professional carnet number C-282. He was buried on Row 30, Section 91, Line 2, Front B of the La Paz General Cemetery, with identification number 186427.

Six months, five prosecutors

The police assigned the investigations to police non-commissioned officer Teodosio Apaza Terrazas and sergeant Esteban Churqui. Several months passed since the tragedy. Reporters Without Borders verified that there had no formal accusation by public prosecutor Blanco Torrez, who was not in favor of being involved in the case “for territorial reasons.” This means that by being in El Alto he believed it was more appropriate that it be dealt with in Pucarani. The deadline set by law for its presentation, 90 days, expired in June. In six months the case went through five public prosecutors.

In Pucarani there is the Court of Summary Proceedings and one Public Prosecutor’s Office. In November 2007, following legal proceedings concerning disputes among municipal officials, Judge Carmen Castro was assaulted and had to leave the city. The community apparently was upset with her over a ruling of hers in favor of a limestone company. From then on, according to reporter Ramos Andrade, “there are no safety guarantees for a public prosecutor to work in the area.”

Between April and May 2008 the public prosecutor assigned to Pucarani, Daniel Guarachi Calle, was replaced by Arturo Rodríguez, who in turn was replaced by Carlos Florilo Cruz, based in El Alto. He handles cases in all the jurisdictions but he has no safety guarantees to work in Pucarani.

In that municipality there are three radio stations – Radio Chaka AM 1480 (owned by the Catholic Church and belonging to the Erbol network), Radio Comunitaria Avni Corapata 1330 AM (located in the rural area of Corapata) and Radio Comunitaria Tutuka 1330 AM (located in the rural area of Tutuka). The FM 90.7 was founded on November 1, 2007. Since then Quispe Quispe was the president and Mayor Mamani Quispe the director. It ceased broadcasting on the day of the attack on March 27 and resumed its operations on June 30. Its only financial support comes from the Municipality.

Quispe Quispe was a firth-year student of communications sciences at the School of Social Sciences of San Andrés University in La Paz. He had been hired as a student teacher while pursuing his studies and as such was not a member of any labor union. There was little repercussion among Bolivian unions to his case.

Nobody knows anything

Inquiries by Public Prosecutor Guarachi Calle began on March 31, four days after the attack, but with all the changes of public prosecutors and other “complications” the formal accusation was delayed until July 4. Then council members Edwin Huampu Espinoza, Basilio Poma Poma, Rufina Zerna Flores and Nicolasa Cruz Quispe and the vice chairman of the Vigilance Committee of Pucarani, Efraín Bonifacio Ticonipa Quispe, were accused of the offenses of attempted breach of security of public services, applicable damages, public instigation to commit crime, and unlawful assembly.

Public Prosecutor Florilo requested that “due to the complexity of the investigation and the material damage caused to a public institution, Municipal Radio of Pucarani, its main broadcast tower, and others it is necessary for the accused to post bail to ensure their attendance in the investigative process until the true facts of the matter have been established.”

He offered as evidence:
• The technical report on the search of the scene of the crime dated March 28, 2008, written by police non-commissioned officer Donato Tantani.
• The transcription of the tape recording of the March 28 initial hearing and photographs of the destruction at the Municipality offices taken that same day.
• The police report of April 2, 2008 written by Tantani.
• The list of Municipality assets, drawn up on March 28 by notary public Eulogio Oblitas Segurondo.
• The statement of the mayor of Pucarani, Mamani Quispe, as plaintiff, taken on April 14, in which he reaffirms the lawsuit filed in writing on March 31.
• The statement of the president of the Pucarani Municipal Council, José Guillermo Castillo Salcedo, as plaintiff, taken on April 14, in which he also reaffirms the lawsuit filed on March 31.
• The testimony of six witnesses.

Five persons questioned all said they had been called to a session of the Pucarani Municipal Council and that they did not know who called the 300 people who gathered in Pucarani on Thursday, March 27 or who had paid for their transportation there aboard trucks. The deadline for the judicial investigation, apart from the detentions and grants of habeus corpus by Judge Prado Saavedra, is April 2009.

The Quispe family lawyer, Jorge Borda Arroyo, who also represents the Pucarani Municipality, said that he “does what he can,” but admits that “feels alone” in attempting to speed up the legal proceedings.

Given the facts, the Quispe Quispe case has not been treated with the importance it deserves.