The country is reeling from live footage of his death at the Pando airport.
Bolivian television stations are repeatedly playing a clip of a pastor being shot on September 12 by the country's military in the capital of Pando.
In the video (warning: very disturbing - it's 3 minutes of people being shot), it's unclear what is going on. A soldier is shouting into a crowd of civilians, women begin screaming, and then the shooting starts. Some soldiers fired into the air, but some shoot into the crowd. Several people fall to the ground. Some don't get up.
Christian World News (a Christian Broadcasting Network affiliate) reports that soldiers were re-taking the airport from a group of civilians in the terminal. EntreChristianios says evangelical pastor Luis Antonio Rivero Shiguekuni was one of those protesting the presence of troops in their city; CWN describes him as "a visiting Christian evangelist."
After most of the shooting ends, the cameraman focuses on Rivero, who seems to have been shot to death. Two men hold him in a sitting position. He is unresponsive. The clip cuts out as a jeep pulls up beside them.
Rivero's brother has appeared on television to explain the incident and demand justice. He praised the local media, saying they were the reason he knows as much as he does about this murder. A partially translated transcript by CT senior writer Deann Alford reads:
It took 20 hours to return the body of our brother. Now we want justice to be done. We are not political, militant people. Politics doesn't interest us. What we went is that the manner be clarified how our brother was murdered.
We received his body?.He was shot at 6:30 p.m., and the coroner said 8 hours later he was shot with the second bullet. [Rivero] lived 4 more hours after that. What happened to the body of my brother during this time? Why was there a 16-hour delay before the military returned his body?
We don't know why or the reason for the treatment/behavior of the military toward my brother. He was an evangelical pastor, a man of peace.
The only thing we want is justice.
Pando's governor, Leopoldo Fernandez, has been accused of overseeing the shootings, according to the The New York Times, and has been arrested by Pando's army. The Wall Street Journal says he "is being investigated on genocide accusations."
We will continue to update this story as new information comes in.
Posted by Susan Wunderink on September 23, 2008 4:28PM
Comments
Thank you so much for this report. I live in Bolivia and wanted to clarify two things, if that is okay. . . autopsy reports quoted to us said that it was TWELVE hours between bullets, then another four before Pastor Rivero died. These may not be accurate, but that was what was repeatedly reported here. Those reports also said that the first bullet went through his hip/ buttocks and exited his groin area. The second, the shot that killed him, entered near his navel, up through some of his organs and out near his arm. His body was also allegedly tampered with before being returned--among other things, the bullet holes had been filled with glue. (If that is too graphic for your readers, feel free to delete it).
As for Leopoldo Fernandez, the charges are a bit shaky, and the story keeps changing. As I understand it, however, the President's administration was not charging him with the pastor's death, but with the massacre that happened earlier. Before the military arrived at the airport, Presidential supporters came to the town and a fight broke out between them and opposition supporters. Details are VERY sketchy, and the recreation of events by the President's side does not line up with other first-hand accounts. But somewhere, someone pulled out a machine gun, and between the sticks/ rocks/ bullets/ etc., about 30 people--from both sides, but mostly from the President's side--were killed. As typical here, a politician is held responsible for these kinds of clashes, and in this case, it was L. Fernandez. He is currently in a La Paz prison (San Pedro) surrounded by a mob of angry Presidential supporters demanding justice.
These are very difficult times for Bolivian churches. Please pray for them to keep their eyes on Jesus and their knees bowed to Him as they reach out to their communities and try to overcome darkness. Thank you SO MUCH for calling attention to our needs and praying for us.
Posted by: anonymous at September 24, 2008
This is a disgrace that this state feels that the only way to control a crowd is to shoot at them. This shows the callousness of the Evo Morales regime. Why not? No totalitarian ever believes in God and feel that taking a life is a sin. Oh! They don't believe in Sin. They are a Sin to humankind.
Posted by: Ray Fonseca at September 24, 2008
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