Bolivia To Set Up Feminicide & Rape Cases Reviewer Commission

Citizens protest against increasing number of feminicides and rape cases, Bolivia, Jan. 30, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @MuyWaso

Published 1 February 2022

The initiative responds to a massive march held on Monday to demand the incarceration of Richard Choque, who recently killed two teenagers and buried their bodies in his house.

On Tuesday, Bolivia’s President Luis Arce requested the creation of a judiciary commission to reviews femicides and rape cases in which the sentenced persons have been released. Its results should be presented within 120 days.

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The initiative responds to a massive march of women held on Monday to demand the incarceration of femicide Richard Choque, who recently killed two teenagers and buried their bodies in his house.

In 2013, this man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murdering a woman who attended his call since he pretended to be a police officer. In 2019, however, a judge released him since he alleged that Choque was suffering from an incurable disease and had good conduct.

The judge is being held in pre-trial detention for six months on misdemeanor charges. Prosecutors presumed that he might have freed other convicts similar to how he did with Choque. 

According to the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), Bolivia is the South American country with the highest femicide rate. In 2020, two out of every 100,000 Bolivian women were victims of this crime.

Last year, a joint inquiry commission on the delay in the attention and resolution of femicide cases presented by the Legislative Assembly recommended that the Bolivian justice system review the law against gender-based violence and have more prosecutors specialized in the subject.

The Arce administration then declared 2022 as the Year of the Cultural Revolution for Depatriarchalization to promote activities that counteract acts of gender-based violence and femicides in particular.