Bolivian ex-officials get prison for 2003 massacre

LA PAZ: A Bolivian court on Tuesday sentenced several top former officials, including the one-time head of the country's armed forces, to prison for their role in a brutal crackdown that left some 65 people dead during a 2003 protest.

Two former ministers and five ex-military officers were each given prison terms of between three and 15 years for their role in the massacre, which also left some 500 people injured.

Retired General Roberto Claros Flores, former head of the Bolivian armed forces and Juan Veliz, former commander of the army, received the harshest punishment, each condemned to serve 15 years in prison.

Two other generals received prison sentences of 10 and 11 years, while a former navy admiral was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

And Bolivia's former Labor minister, Adalberto Kuajara, as well as its sustainable development minister, Erick Reyes Villa received sentences of three years each from Bolivia's high court.

The sentences ended years of legal wrangling following the brutal government crackdown during the regime of liberal president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, now in exile in the United States.

Sanchez de Lozada resigned in October 2003 -- 14 months into his second presidential term -- after massive, violent demonstrations against his plan to sell natural gas to foreign countries through Chile, with which Bolivia has a century-old border dispute.

He resigned after some 65 people died in clashes between demonstrators and security forces who were ordered to clear the roads for oil and gas tanker trucks.

Relatives of the slain protesters hailed the court's actions, as did the government prosecutor in the case.

"History has been made," said Milton Mendoza, an attorney for the state.

Meanwhile, Freddy Avalos, an attorney representing victims of the repression, said the historic verdicts set an important "precedent" and proved that it was possible, under a constitutional government "to get justice" in Bolivia.

The La Paz government in 2008 requested that Washington extradite the aging former leader, now 81, so that he could be tried, but US authorities have not handed him over.

Other ministers from his cabinet currently live in exile in neighboring Peru and in Spain.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011