COCHABAMBA — Bolivia may need outside help to investigate a “massive” number of human rights violations amid post-election violence to ensure findings are seen as credible in the deeply divided country, the head of a regional human rights commission told Reuters on Tuesday. After a three-day visit to Bolivia, Paulo Abrão, who heads the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), recommended Bolivia coordinate with an international panel of experts similar to one formed to investigate the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico. “Normally in these situations … national institutions aren’t prepared to resolve such a massive grouping of violations” of human rights, Abrão said in an interview in Cochabamba, a region hard hit by the violence. The appointment must be approved by Congress, which Morales’ party Movement to Socialism (MAS) controls. Abrão heard descriptions of security forces using live ammunition to suppress what people said had been a peaceful protest.

Source: National Post November 27, 2019 00:11 UTC