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Forty hours before the Sacaba massacre, Police Commander Jaime Zurita met with the head of the Cochabamba peasants union. His message: "If you enter the city, I will hunt you." wp.me/pcFxY-1dT
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In this one threat, we see premeditation and command responsibility for the massacre (although the military took the lead role in the actual shooting).
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The threat was backed by military-police coordination: "we will not let you [pass], you have seen that there is a new commander, a new Army and all of that. Whe have gathered together … the air force, all of the garrison. We don’t want to annihilate you, we don’t want to."
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And it was made by a police commander who was installed just five days earlier, in response to a police mutiny.
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Public statements by Jaime Zurita show he aligned himself w the police mutiny on November 8, declared the police command backed the mutiny on November 11.
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On November 11, he called for collaboration among the police, quasiparamilitary RJC, and "organized citizens." This was foreshadowed by his Nov 8 remarks as well.
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Zurita doesn't speak of avoiding bloodshed, but of institutional unity in the police force. He calls for orienting the police towards defending (certain) urban citizens, and basically negotiates a partial reactivation of the Cbba police force around a new mission.
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Joint police-military patrols appear around metro Cochabamba November 12. Police kill a MAS protester in Huayllani, Sacaba on Nov 11. A detained MAS protester suffocates in an overcrowded military vehicle on Nov 12.
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Per the #GIEIBolivia report Zurita's police are unhelpful in finding the perpetrators of these killings.
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His threats on November 13 are realized in full on November 15, when around 100 protesters are wounded and at least 10 are killed for attempting to enter the city.
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Zurita is among those awaiting trial for the Sacaba massacre.