| Senkata massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the 2019 Bolivian political crisis | |
  Senkata, El Alto | |
| Location | Senkata, El Alto, Bolivia |
| Date | 19 November 2019 |
| Target | Protesters |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Weapons | Firearms |
| Deaths | 11 |
| Injured | ~80 |
| Perpetrators | Bolivian National Police, Armed Forces of Bolivia |
The 2019 Senkata massacre occurred when Bolivian soldiers and police broke up a road blockade at the YPFB gas facility in Senkata, El Alto, Bolivia, on 19 November 2019. It occurred one week into the interim presidency of Jeanine Áñez and four days after the Sacaba massacre. Rural and urban protesters had blockaded the plant shortly after the ouster of Bolivian president Evo Morales. Their protests were part of nationwide blockades by his supporters denouncing the ouster as a coup d'état, and urban protests in El Alto against the new government's desecration of the wiphala, an Indigenous flag designated a Bolivian national symbol by the 2009 Constitution. By 14 November, protesters had built barricades as part of their blockade.
During the morning of 19 November, security forces escorted trucks containing natural gas canisters out of the plant. Before noon, they began clashing with protesters who dismantled the wall and attempted to get inside. The security forces used live ammunition on demonstrators in the vicinity of the plant, as well in surrounding neighborhoods throughout the afternoon. Eleven people, all of them civilians and including some bystanders, were shot dead or fatally wounded during the day's events.[1] The Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts, appointed by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, estimates that eighty people were wounded that day among bullets of 22 caliber and dynamite.[1]
Following the events of 19 November, the government issued a series of conflicting reports about the day, both denying that militarized forces had shot their weapons and arguing that the military had to intervene to prevent a terrorist attack. Investigative reports and witness testimony debunked the initial governmental narrative and illustrated how governmental forces used extreme force and committed extrajudicial executions in what the Inter-American Commission on Human rights has called a massacre.[1] In 2021 three Defense Ministers and five military officers were arrested and/or indicted on charges relating to the massacre.[2] Following this, in 2022 Departmental police commander William Cordero was indicted.[3]
The 19 November police and military intervention marked the end of disruptions to the supply of natural gas in La Paz and El Alto, but not of protests against the Áñez government.[4] Talks between pro-Morales movements and the Áñez government led to a promise of new elections and demobilization of protests.[5]
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights denounced the Senkata events as a massacre in December 2019,[6] and the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts ratified that description in its 2021 report on human rights violations during the crisis. The massacre was also investigated and condemned by the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic and the University Network for Human Rights.[7]
- ^ a b c GIEI report (2021).
- ^ "Aprehensión y detención de militares por sucesos de 2019 se extiende a tres departamentos". El Deber. 27 July 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
- ^ "Caso Senkata: Exjefe departamental de la Policía está imputado por desplegar efectivos con arma reglamentaria". Erbol. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
- ^ "Bolivia: los manifestantes levantaron los bloqueos en La Paz y El Alto en apoyo al diálogo con el Gobierno de Áñez". infobae. 2019-11-23. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
- ^ Flores, Paola (2019-11-22). "Acuerdan nuevos comicios en Bolivia sin Evo Morales". AP News. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
- ^ Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (2019-12-10). "CIDH presenta sus observaciones preliminares tras su visita a Bolivia, y urge una investigación internacional para las graves violaciones de derechos humanos ocurridas en el marco del proceso electoral desde octubre de 2019" (Text). Retrieved 2021-11-22.
- ^ "They Shot Us Like Animals": Black November & Bolivia's Interim Government (PDF) (Report). International Human Rights Clinic. Harvard Law School. 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2022.