Bolivian ex-ministers sentenced over 2019 riot gear purchases

A Bolivian court sentenced two former ministers on Friday to eight years in prison for the irregular purchase of tear gas and riot equipment used to quell demonstrations launched by supporters of ex-president Evo Morales in late 2019.

Bolivia’s first Indigenous president, Morales, was extremely popular after taking power in 2006 — until he tried to bypass the constitution and seek a fourth term in office in 2019.

He won the vote, but the right-wing opposition accused him of electoral fraud, and he was forced to resign amid huge and deadly protests and fled the country.

After Morales was replaced by right-wing interim president Jeanine Anez, the demonstrations were reignited by his supporters, and clashes between civilians and security forces left 35 dead, according to an investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

On Friday, a Bolivian court found two former officials under Anez’s interim administration guilty of the irregular purchase of tear gas and military goods in November 2019.

Arturo Murillo, who was interior minister, was “guilty of the crime of illegal negotiations,” while then-defense minister Luis Fernando Lopez was sentenced for “the crime of contracts harmful to the state,” said the justice ministry.

Murillo had already been sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison in the United States in January 2023 over the same case, after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder bribe money he received.

According to US officials, Murillo had received at least $532,000 in bribes from a Florida company for helping it win a $5.6 million contract to provide riot equipment to the Bolivian defense ministry.

Lopez is currently in Paraguay.

Bolivia remains deeply polarised after the events of 2019.

Anez was sentenced in June 2022 to 10 years in prison on charges of instigating a coup against Morales, but the government and civil society groups are still pushing for another trial for the deaths of protesters.

The current president, Luis Arce, was a one-time ally of Morales — who returned to Bolivia in October 2020 — but a power struggle has emerged between the two men, deepening political instability in the Andean nation.