NATIONAL REPORT 2016 Introduction Bolivian history is rife with torture, massacres and other forms of organised violence by State agents. Pervasive human rights violations have been a feature of Bolivian life throughout all epochs of its history, including during the colonial time, in the Republic, during past dictatorships and during democratic governments. Dictatorship predominated between 1964 and 1981 with widespread abuses including enforced disappearances and the use of torture as a tool of political repression against leftist parties and trade unions. With the return of democracy, the use of torture as a repressive instrument has decreased but still persists today. President Evo Morales Ayma came into power in 2006 and the new government initially expressed a willingness to fight torture and ill-treatment. For example, after the “Without Roofs” movement was violently repressed in 2006, Instituto de Terapia e Investigación sobre las secuelas de la tortura y la violencia estatal (ITEI) conducted an investigation into the events and documented the physical and psychological sequelae of torture and ill-treatment perpetrated against the victims.1 As a result of ITEI’s report, a representative of the government requested to be informed of the outcome of the investigation. Furthermore, ITEI presented a public petition to the government, urging it to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), which it duly did in 2006. In 2009, key international conventions, including the Convention against Torture (CAT), the OPCAT, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, were integrated into the new Bolivian Constitution. page 4 Protest against dictatorship in La Paz. © courtesy of ITEI