Three police officers lynched in Bolivia
LA PAZ, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Three off-duty policemen were stoned, beaten and hanged to death in a central Bolivian town after residents said they tried to extort money from a man driving without license plates, local media said on Wednesday.
Including the three policemen, 10 people have died so far this year in Bolivia in lynchings. Most of the victims were thieves caught in the act, as frustration over official corruption and the slow justice system boils over.
Deputy Interior Minister Ruben Gamarra called the lynching a "cowardly assassination" and said there would be an investigation into the possible participation of local authorities in the town of Epizana, in the province of Cochabamba, 600 km (373 miles) southeast of La Paz.
According to local media reports, enraged residents said the policemen had stopped a driver and were trying to get money out of him because he did not have license plates, which is common in Bolivia.
A journalist with Bolivision television network, who saw the lynching, said the three policemen were beaten with sticks and stones.
"The three officers asked for help and were begging for their lives," the reporter, Limbert Sanchez, said in a report on Bolivision.
Sanchez said he and his cameramen were also beaten, and his camera was taken away after they filmed the lynching.
Gamarra said the policemen were not on duty at the time and that authorities would investigate what they were doing in Epizana.
President Evo Morales backs a proposed new constitution that would more reflect the traditions of the indigenous majority. It includes a controversial judicial reform allowing communities to mete out justice according to local customs, rather than through the courts.
But Gamarra said community justice has nothing to do with lynchings. "It's to resolve minor disputes between neighbors. In no way does it mean physical punishment, much less an assassination," he said.
"Nobody can take justice into their own hands. Community justice should be a culture of life, not a death culture," Gamarra said. (Reporting by Carlos Alberto Quiroga; writing by Fiona Ortiz, Editing by Sandra Maler)
Including the three policemen, 10 people have died so far this year in Bolivia in lynchings. Most of the victims were thieves caught in the act, as frustration over official corruption and the slow justice system boils over.
Deputy Interior Minister Ruben Gamarra called the lynching a "cowardly assassination" and said there would be an investigation into the possible participation of local authorities in the town of Epizana, in the province of Cochabamba, 600 km (373 miles) southeast of La Paz.
According to local media reports, enraged residents said the policemen had stopped a driver and were trying to get money out of him because he did not have license plates, which is common in Bolivia.
A journalist with Bolivision television network, who saw the lynching, said the three policemen were beaten with sticks and stones.
"The three officers asked for help and were begging for their lives," the reporter, Limbert Sanchez, said in a report on Bolivision.
Sanchez said he and his cameramen were also beaten, and his camera was taken away after they filmed the lynching.
Gamarra said the policemen were not on duty at the time and that authorities would investigate what they were doing in Epizana.
President Evo Morales backs a proposed new constitution that would more reflect the traditions of the indigenous majority. It includes a controversial judicial reform allowing communities to mete out justice according to local customs, rather than through the courts.
But Gamarra said community justice has nothing to do with lynchings. "It's to resolve minor disputes between neighbors. In no way does it mean physical punishment, much less an assassination," he said.
"Nobody can take justice into their own hands. Community justice should be a culture of life, not a death culture," Gamarra said. (Reporting by Carlos Alberto Quiroga; writing by Fiona Ortiz, Editing by Sandra Maler)
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