Andean Group - May 2009 (ISSN 1741-4466)

Days before the start of the trial of former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (1993-1997 and 2002-2003), the country's most high profile case since the 1995 trial of former dictator Luis Garcí­a Mesa, the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) voted to suspend president of the supreme justice court (CJS), Eddy Fernández. While government opponents decried the move as an attempt at “decapitating" the judiciary, the opposition-led senate has yet to issue its own ruling. Many consider his acquittal a foregone conclusion and the MAS vote little more than a response to considerable pressure from Morales' grassroots supporters.

On 13 May, the lower chamber of congress, where the MAS commands a majority, voted to suspend Fernández on charges of procrastination and dereliction of duty (in that he is accused of having delayed the Sánchez de Lozada trial). Along with 16 of his ministers, Sánchez de Lozada is accused of genocide after an army clampdown on anti-government protests in 2003 resulted in 65 dead. The case has been held up in the courts for years, a sign of the weakness of Bolivia's judicial system.

With difficulties between the judiciary and executive hardly a new phenomenon under the Morales administration (see sidebar), the government has become increasingly vocal in its hostility towards the CSJ since February, following the court's failure to respond to repeated requests for the accused to be supervised and prevented from leaving the country. The magistrates maintained there was insufficient evidence of a flight risk, despite the fact that some of the accused had already left the country.

Then, in March, Vice President Alvaro Garcí­a Linera and the defence minister, Walker San Miguel called for Fernández, accused in the past by the government of affiliation to the now-defunct rightwing party, the Nueva Fuerza Republicana (NFR), to be sent to prison for delaying the course of justice.

Following the 13 May vote by the lower chamber, the senate has yet to rule on Fernández's suspension. However, given that it is dominated by the opposition, a situation which has long proved a thorn in the side of Morales, many believe the acquittal of the former CJS president a foregone conclusion. Morales recently expressed his frustration with the constant obstacles thrown up by the senate and reiterated hopes that the December general elections would result in a changed scenario; he told his followers in Cochabamba, “I hope that from December this year we shall really enjoy power [which means] that we should have the executive, legislative and judicial powers. Right now we are not in power, only in government. We are doing what we can by decree". His aim is for the MAS not only to secure his re-election in the elections scheduled for 6 December, but also to win majorities in both chambers of congress

Trial begins
Five days after the MAS voted to suspend Fernández, his interim replacement, another CJS magistrate, Beatriz Sandoval, began hearing oral arguments in the trial of Sánchez de Lozada. The case is considered crucial to ending a history of impunity for government abuses.

However, Sánchez de Lozada and three of his ministers are in exile in the US, three have recently been granted political asylum in Peru (which in turn has damaged Peru-Bolivia relations -see page?), one is in Spain and one has gone missing. This creates problems as, according to Bolivian law, a trial cannot proceed if the accused is not present.

In November last year, Bolivia formally requested the extradition of Sánchez de Lozada and his former defence and energy ministers, Carlos Sánchez Berzaí­n and Jorge Berindoague, from the US although the petition has so far been refused. Minister for the presidency, Ramón Quintana recently said that the US had promised to facilitate the extradition request (following a visit by the US Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Thomas Shannon to Bolivia - see box). However, considerable scepticism remains as to whether this promise will result in action, not least because US President Barack Obama's White House Counsel, Greg Craig was formerly Sánchez de Lozada's defence lawyer on the case.

• US-Bolivia ties

With Morales' ally and declared enemy of the US, Venezuela's Hugo Chávez having told Obama at the recent Summit of the Americas that he wanted to be his “friend" and Cuba and the US making tentative overtures to each other, Bolivia stands out as the one country where little progress has been made in patching up relations. These had steadily deteriorated in the final months of the Bush administration, with the expulsion of US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg in September, serving as the catalyst [RA-08-10].
   On 21 May Shannon travelled to Bolivia to meet Morales. The visit was unfortunate in its timing, coinciding as it did with the beginning of the Sánchez de Lozada trial, serving to highlight one of the diplomatic disputes between both countries which is least likely to be resolved.
   Nevertheless both sides made conciliatory noises - Shannon alluded to “very open and frank conversations" which, he maintained “had dealt with all the important and difficult issues in the bilateral relationship with a lot of sincerity", while Morales expressed a hope for an improvement in ties with the US.
     However, the first sign of return to normalcy in relations between the two countries will be a new exchange of ambassadors and neither side set a date. The posts in both countries have been vacant since last September [RA-09-08].
   Bolivia is also adamant that it will not allow the US Drug Enforcement Administration to return to the country, even though this means, as Shannon said, that Bolivia will remain without its favourable-tariff access to the US under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (Atpdea).
  The next meeting between representatives from the US and Bolivia is slated to take place in Washington next month.

• CSJ

Relations between the judiciary and executive have long been strained under the government of President Evo Morales. Vice-President Alvaro Garcí­a Linera recently described the current judiciary as “a mosaic of old neoliberal parties which for the past 15 years have divvied up the CSJ, the constitutional court and the district courts". He, along with other government supporters, maintains that the judiciary is aligned with the Right.

• Exeni

With seven months to go until the 6 December general elections, president of the supreme electoral court (CSE), José Luis Exeni, handed in his resignation on 1 May, citing family reasons. Autonomy minister Carlos Romero speculated that Exeni's decision, which came as a surprise to the government, reflected fears that he was not up to what is undoubtedly a formidable task ahead. Exeni has been replaced by another CSE official, José Antonio Costas.