Bolivia awaiting punishment against the oppressor Murillo

The sentencing hearing in Murillo is set for January 4. “This is an important step towards achieving justice for Bolivia,” attorney Thomas Baker wrote on his Twitter account.

Former government minister in the de facto regime, Murillo, pleaded guilty on October 20 to international bribery and money laundering offenses in the country that supported the overthrow of former President Evo Morales in November 2019.

As the jurist explained at a conference at the Nira Weri Cultural Center attended by Prensa Latina, he is expected to be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison at his sentencing hearing, according to the US Department of Justice.

Advocate for victims of repression against those who opposed the rupture of the constitutional order in the highlands in 2019, Baker considered at the time that the ruling would be an important step for the families of the deceased and injured in Sacapa, Cochabamba, and Senkata, in El Alto, during the de facto government (2019-2020) .

In 2019, based on Decree 4078 – better known as “Death” – police and military forces suppressed defenseless civilian defenders of democracy with gunfire.

As a result, 38 people died, hundreds were injured, and thousands were persecuted, arbitrarily arrested and tortured, in what constitutes a grave violation of human rights, according to the report of the Independent Multidisciplinary Expert Group.

In his role as Minister of Government (Interior), Murillo was the most visible face of repression in the de-facto regime, and while announcing to the media a “hunt” for those he described as terrorists and criminals, he committed international crimes.

From his wallet, he shelled out $5.7 million to buy tear gas from broker Bravo Tactical Solutions, but the latter only paid Brazilian company Cóndor $3.3 million for its acquisition.

The overprice of 2.3 million US currency was transferred to accounts in the United States for the benefit of the former minister and his accomplices.

According to information that emerged during investigations in the United States, out of $2.3 million, 582,000 went to Rodrigo Mendez, the former Chief of Staff of Murillo, and the rest was divided among three North American citizens.

Murillo was arrested and held in a Miami prison since 2021, and he could not hide that he used American banks to mobilize those economic resources.

mem/jpm