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Bolivia Senate to hold impeachment trial for high court chief justice

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Bolivian Senate announced Thursday that an impeachment trial for Chief Justice Dr. Eddy Walter Fernandez Gutierrez of the Bolivian Supreme Court will be held on June 3. The Chamber of Deputies, Bolivia's lower congressional house, impeached Fernandez and suspended his title earlier this month after convicting him on the charge of "retardation of justice". Fernandez denounced his impeachment as a politically motivated endeavor to clear room in the Supreme Court for a justice more likely to represent the interests of Bolivian president and leader of the Socialist Movement (MAS) party Evo Morales. The "retardation of justice" charge was attributed to public discontent over Fernandez's refusal to hear a case against former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada arising from the "Black October" killings of 2003. Five days after Fernandez's title was suspended, the Supreme Court announced their intention to try Lozada. The riots leading up to the Black October killings occurred when military forces clashed with indigenous farmers, coca growers, students, and unionists who protested Sanchez de Lozada's attempts to open up the country to free trade with the US and to export gas and other natural resources. The protests were led by Morales.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 22, 2009 (boomark / email).