Bolivian President Demands Accountability for Stolen Vehicle Delivered to Indigenous Community

The Bolivian presidential spokesman, Jorge Richter, assured that President Luis Arce asked for the “names and surnames” of those responsible for the delivery of a stolen vehicle in Chile to an indigenous community last March.

According to La Tercera, Richter commented to the Red Uno outlet that the president was very upset by the situation and that “today (on Wednesday) we have had a cabinet and the president, to the inconvenience that I point out, has reminded his collaborators , he has reminded the ministers that ‘I want the names and surnames of those responsible on my desk'”.

According to the spokesman, they are already working to obtain the identification of the person responsible, because it is an event that should not have happened and where an official committed irregularities, the Santa Cruz newspaper El Deber reported.

In addition, Richter recognized that “there are control instances that have not done their job properly,” however, he assured that this case “is not a structural fact.”

DELIVERY OF THE VEHICLE

On March 27, the president handed over a vehicle to the community of Conamaq as part of the ceremony of the twenty-sixth anniversary of the National Council of Ayllus y Markas del Qullasuyu (Conamaq), held in La Paz.

“Today we do not come empty-handed. We know the extent of the territory and that you have to move. We bring a vehicle for our brothers from Conamaq,” said the president before handing over the truck to the organization of native peoples.

However, shortly after the Chilean Hugo Bustos, founder of the NGO Grupo Vehículos Robados, realized that the vehicle, a Toyota RAV4, had the badge of a Chilean automotive company and, later, he verified with the National Directorate of Prevention of Investigation of Vehicle Theft (Diprove), which involved a stolen vehicle in 2018.

The situation generated various reactions and opened the possibility that more vehicles with the same condition have been delivered by Bolivian authorities. According to the Chilean Vehicle Search Group, at least 12 cars with reports of theft are in Bolivian territory, donated to the governments of Evo Morales and Luis Arce.

“It is not that governments are always exempt from corruption, the important thing is to look at what is the attitude that you assume with corruption, that is the fundamental thing”, highlighted Richter.

However, from the Bolivian coalition Comunidad Ciudadana they were critical of what happened, and the deputy Marcelo Pedrazas maintained that “it is inconceivable that a country is international news due to acts of corruption by its Police and, above all, discovered by foreign journalists from a country with which we do not have the best diplomatic relations”