Bolivia's Minister of Justice and Institutional Transparency, Iván Lima, indicated that the census is one of the GIEI's suggestions for reparations to victims. | Photo: @MinJusticiaBol

La Paz, August 22 (RHC)-- Bolivia's Minister of Justice and Institutional Transparency, Iván Lima, reports that the Plurinational Victim Assistance Service (Sepdavi) will immediately begin to census the victims of violence and massacres during the coup d'état perpetrated in 2019.

The decision comes after the presentation of the final report of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI), where they determined that there were human rights violations, massacres by law enforcement and extrajudicial killings during the de facto government of Jeanine Áñez.

In this sense, Minister Lima recalled that the GIEI team suggested the Bolivian State to take actions for the reparation of the victims, among them, the census.

"Regarding the reparation of the damage, which is the other structural issue, the group recommends the elaboration of a victims' census.  So far, we had not left them aside, but we had prioritized the widows, the most seriously injured and this should be extended to other victims," said the minister.

In addition, Lima emphasized that Sepdavi is preparing to start the census this week, with which the State will finally work.  This census should comply with the principle of universality, as suggested by the organization.

The document of the GIEI, which states the human rights violations, presented to President Luis 'Lucho' Arce last Tuesday, August 17, indicates that the State must act in an agile, transparent and plural manner to compensate the victims.

Sepdavi is a decentralized public entity, whose mission is to provide legal assistance, especially in criminal, psychological and social matters, to people with limited economic resources.  It also acts under the direction of the Ministry of Justice and Institutional Transparency.

"It recommended the creation of a multidisciplinary group between the Government, civil society and the victims themselves to monitor this process at the highest level, an aspect that we will also take into account to implement the recommendations," concluded the head of the Bolivian Ministry of Justice.