Bolivias højesteret har dømt 5 højtstående officerer for mordet på 64 mennesker under folkelige protester i 2003, oplyser BBC World News tirsdag.
4 former generals and 1 admiral were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years in prison.
2 former ministers were jailed for 3 years each for complicity in what was described as a “genocide”.
The protesters in El Alto had demanded an end to the export of natural gas to the US using Chilean ports.
It is the first time that high-ranking military men have been convicted by a civilian court in Bolivia for human rights abuses.
The Bolivian government has been seeking the extradition of at least 8 former officials – the then President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, and seven former ministers. They are living abroad or have gone into exile in the US, Peru and Spain.
President Sanchez de Lozada left the country before the end of his second term in office after the killings. He has been living in the US ever since.
