La Paz, Feb 1 (EFE) - Bolivia's president, Luis Arce, instructed Tuesday to create a commission to review cases of feminicide in which those sentenced have been freed, a day after a massive march by women demanding justice against male violence after a case that caused outrage in the country.

The Bolivian president wrote on his Twitter account that "given the worrying situation and conduct of judges and justice operators" he has instructed the creation of the "Commission for the Review of Cases of Rape and Femicide in which those sentenced were released".

"It must present results within a maximum of 120 days," Arce wrote.

The Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, later told a press conference that the commission will hold its first meeting on 4 February at the Casa Grande del Pueblo in La Paz with the various social and civil organisations and relatives of the victims who are demanding justice.

The commission is made up of the ministries of the Presidency, Government and Justice, as well as the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Freddy Mamani Laura, the Chamber of Senators, Andrónico Rodríguez, the State Attorney General, Juan Lanchipa, and the State Attorney General, Wilfredo Chávez.

The Supreme Court of Justice, the Council of the Magistracy and the Constitutional Court are also parties, Prada explained.

"We are going to provide structural solutions, which is what Bolivian families expect," Prada concluded.

BACKGROUND

This decision comes a day after a massive women's march from the city of El Alto to La Paz to demand justice against male violence and to express their rejection of corruption in the judicial system.

The women marched some 12 kilometres after the indignation caused by the case of Richard Choque Flores, a feminicide who was released despite a 30-year prison sentence without the right to pardon and in whose house at least two women's bodies were found.

According to the investigations, the man posed as a policeman and summoned his victims to an accommodation where he previously planted packages that looked like drugs and abused the women in exchange for not reporting them.

So far, at least 77 victims of abuse and extortion have been counted, which caused the man's neighbours to burn down the man's house.

The man had an enforceable sentence for a femicide in 2013 but was released in 2019 by Judge Rafael A. on the grounds that the convicted person suffered from an incurable disease.

The judge was arrested and is being held in preventive detention for six months in a prison in La Paz on charges of prevarication, and it is presumed that others sentenced have been released in the same way as Choque Flores.

Last year a joint legislative commission of enquiry into the delays in the attention and resolution of cases of feminicide presented a report after monitoring cases of gender violence in which it recommended revising the law against violence against women and having more prosecutors specialised in the issue.

Bolivia declared this year as the Year of the Cultural Revolution for Depatriarchalisation, with the aim of establishing structural solutions to stop the persistent cases of violence against women in Bolivia.

In 2021 there were 108 femicides in Bolivia, one of the most violent countries for women, and one of the constant complaints is the delay and corruption in the judicial system. EFE

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