Place and date of birth: La Paz, July 9, 1976 Age at death: 31. Marital status: Single Occupation: He was a fifth-year student of communication sciences and while he ran the radio station he had been hired as a “university student teacher.”
30 October 2012
Carlos Quispe Quispe
Date of death: March 29, 2008 How and where he died: He was beaten with sticks and whips at the place of his work, radio station FM 90.7 Radio Municipal de Pucarani, 30 miles from La Paz, as his assailants destroyed the station’s equipment, among it the sound mixer, broadcast control computer and sound booth. He died two days later from his wounds. Possible motives: A demonstration by 300 people organized by the Vigilance Committee of that municipality against the mayor, Alejandro Mamani Quispe, led to the storming of the building and destruction of the radio station, which is located on the first floor of the municipal building, and other offices. Quispe Quispe was identified by the chairman of the Vigilance Committee, Julio Quisberth Quispe, who shouted “This is the mouth that talks!” Alleged perpetrators/persons implicated: Initially Quispe Quisbert, the main accused, ignored a call to present himself to testify before the El Alto 1st Criminal Court and disappeared from the community where he lives, Chijasivi. The others accused of smashing things in general, not of the attack upon Quispe Quispe in particular, are Efraín Ticonipa, a leader of the Vigilance Committee, and council members Edwin Huambo Espinoza, Nicolaza Cruz, Rufina Serna and Basilio Poma. Irregularities in the proceedings: In six months the case was handled successively by five public prosecutors. The latest one, located in La Paz, asked to be taken off the case “for territorial reasons.” The family lawyer meanwhile finds himself facing the dilemma of slow proceedings in which he has no support in seeking to carry out his work.
