VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLP #0031/01 0391514
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 081514Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY LA PAZ
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0637
INFO RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO
RUEHUB/USINT HAVANA 0067
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC

C O N F I D E N T I A L LA PAZ 000031 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/08 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM PHUM PINR BL
SUBJECT: GOB USING JUDICIAL REFORM TO HUNT OPPOSITION? 
 
REF: 10 LA PAZ 29; 09 LA PAZ 1605; 09 LA PAZ 659; 08 LA PAZ 2464 
 
DERIVED FROM: DSCG 05-1 B, D 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  President Morales and his ruling Movement Toward 
Socialism party (MAS) are accelerating the pace of judicial reform 
and moving to increase control over Bolivia's divided judiciary. 
GOB representatives say legislation is needed to appoint temporary 
justices to the Supreme Court and Constitutional Tribunal, both of 
which lack personnel and together face several thousand pending 
cases. Members of the political opposition fear the reforms are 
aimed at boosting legal harassment of their leaders, some of whom 
are already being prosecuted for corruption or alleged involvement 
in an April 2009 terrorism case (Reftel C). We share the concern 
that MAS control over the judiciary could lead to political 
prosecutions, but note that -- to date -- many of the cases brought 
against opposition members appear to have some merit.  End summary. 
 
 
 
Judicial Reform Legislation - "Ley Corta" 
 
 
 
¶2. (U) Bolivia's new constitution requires passage of several 
implementing laws (Reftel A) to reform the judiciary.  The 
legislation would, among other things, redefine the process for 
selecting judges and magistrates for the Supreme Court and 
Constitutional Tribunal, respectively.  The constitution outlines 
the new process generally, in which the Plurinational Assembly will 
nominate judicial candidates for the public to vote on.  GOB 
representatives say developing and passing the implementing 
legislation, nominating candidates, and then holding elections 
could take up to a year to accomplish. 
 
 
 
¶3. (U) In the interim, President Morales has called for passage of 
stopgap legislation, or a "ley corta," to designate transitional 
authorities for the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Tribunal. 
Due to a growing shortage of judges on the Supreme Court and a 
total lack of magistrates in the Constitutional Tribunal (Reftel 
D), each body faces a backlog of several thousand cases.  GOB 
representatives say the courts cannot afford more delay.  As 
written, the ley corta would allow President Morales to select 
temporary judges and magistrates unilaterally until elections are 
held on December 5.  Political opposition members and some 
constitutional law experts claim such a process would violate the 
constitution, but it appears the law is set to be approved 
imminently. 
 
 
 
Opposition: Judicial Reform Precursor to Persecution 
 
 
 
¶4. (U) While all agree there is a need for judicial reform to begin 
processing pending cases, the political opposition claims the MAS' 
recipe for reform is also designed to speed the process of 
political persecution against their leadership.  In addition to 
pending corruption cases against ex-Cochabamba Prefect and 
presidential candidate Manfred Reyes Villa (Reftel B), prosecutors 
on February 1 formally charged several Santa Cruz political and 
business leaders of aiding an alleged armed terrorist uprising 
(Reftel C), including former Civic Committee President Branko 
Marinkovic, retired army general Lucio AC1ez, current Civic 
Committee Vice President Guido Nayar, and at least two others. 
 
 
 
¶5. (C) Marinkovic entered the United States in January, and he has 
 
not appeared for at least two court-ordered hearings.  His lawyer, 
Eric Seifert, has complained that prosecutors and 
government-friendly judges seek to transfer the case "illegally" 
from Santa Cruz (where the incident occurred) to La Paz.  On 
February 2, a Santa Cruz judge ordered the case moved to La Paz, 
which caused Seifert to comment that, "there are judges that rule 
in favor of the government. In this case, we have a judge who 
breaks the rules...  Somehow she read more than 2,000 pages [of the 
legal brief] in a half hour and made a decision to move the case to 
La Paz... This is a clear political persecution." 
 
 
 
¶6. (C) Ex-Pando Senator and current gubernatorial candidate Paulo 
Bravo maintained that the MAS is targeting opposition leaders. 
"This is just the tip of the iceberg, and it's not about a quest 
for justice," he told us.  In a separate conversation, Santa Cruz 
political and business leader Carlos de Chazal predicted that "the 
government's persecution will only accelerate after the upcoming 
April 4 departmental and local elections.  " 
 
 
 
Comments 
 
 
 
¶7. (C) Despite the dire warnings of the opposition and the 
over-heated rhetoric of President Morales and other GOB officials, 
the charges in the most prominent cases, such as that of Reyes 
Villa, seem plausible.  UN High Commission for Human Rights 
Representative Dennis Racicot told us prosecutors appear to have 
prima facie corruption cases against Reyes Villa, but said UNHCHR 
will follow the actions against him from a due process perspective. 
Reyes Villa was widely viewed as corrupt during his tenure as 
Cochabamba prefect.  Similarly, several sources tell us that, while 
they may dispute the extent of their involvement and their ultimate 
intent, some  of Santa Cruz's political and business leaders 
(members of the "roundtable" and the "tower" groups among them) 
appear to have been involved in bringing alleged terrorist leader 
Rozsa to Bolivia. 
 
 
 
¶8. (C) With the MAS holding more than two-thirds of the votes, it 
is practically a fait accompli that the Plurinational Assembly will 
nominate pro-MAS judges and magistrates to head the Supreme Court 
and the Constitutional Tribunal, and that the MAS will seek to 
increasingly control the judiciary.    However, at least until 
recently, there were many members of the judiciary that were 
staunchly pro-opposition as well.  Racicot noted that the constant 
jurisdictional battles in criminal cases (La Paz versus Santa Cruz) 
reflected the political polarization within the judiciary. We will 
work with the UNHCR and interested countries to watch whether the 
changes in the judiciary lead to political prosecutions of 
opposition leaders without regard for due process. 
Creamer