Bolivia Begins Extradition Process for Coup Fugitives in Brazil

The extradition process of former Minister of Defense, Fernando López Julio, and the former Police General, Yuri Calderón, both of whom are currently fugitives in Brazil, will be activated on Monday.

The State Attorney General, Wilfredo Chávez Serrano, reported on Saturday that the process involves the transfer of the two to Bolivia where they are subject to the law for the crimes committed during the Jeanine Añez coup administration.

“The president of Brazil, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, has officially informed that both Bolivian citizens are in that country,” said Chávez Serrano.

He explained that the State Attorney General’s Office will request to activate the extradition process as soon as possible, utilizing the bilateral treaty between Bolivia and Brazil. The two fugitives are central to cases involving crimes against humanity and corruption committed in 2019 and 2020.

The Prosecutor indicated that preventive detention for extradition purposes of the indicated persons must be immediately requested, in order to then formalize the extradition, which must be activated within the following six months.

Prosecutor Chávez Serrano stated that these are two people who are directly involved in the 2019, since López Julio was Minister of Defense, as a quota of power of the current governor of Santa Cruz, Fernando Camacho, while Calderón was the commander of the Police and facilitated a mutiny by police officers and several crimes committed against the Bolivian population.

Finally, he reminded that these types of extradition processes have a tendency to take quite a long time to be fulfilled, but that they are already being activated as of Monday.

Kawsachun News broke the story in English and Spanish of Jair Bolsonaro’s recent confession, made on one of his live streams, that he was harboring the two wanted fugitives in Brazil. Several national Bolivian outlets reproduced the story following our publication, and the Bolsonaro’s statements and actions have since been denounced by Bolivian authorities.

Bolsonaro stated in his live-streamed remarks that as long as he’s president, Fernando López would not be going anywhere, suggesting that he would not force the former Añez Defense Minister to return to Bolivia to face justice. Thus far, there has been no indication as to whether the government of Brazil will fulfill its obligation to detain the two wanted individuals and comply with the extradition proceedings.

By Kawsachun News