Status boundary: This case produced criminal convictions in Bolivia and civil liability in the United States. A civil verdict and settlement are not criminal convictions. Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín were charged in Bolivia but were not tried there in absentia; the sources reviewed do not establish a final Bolivian judgment against either man.
Protest, blockade and a military response
In 2003, opposition to a proposal to export Bolivian natural gas through Chile developed into a broader confrontation over resource policy, political representation and the economic exclusion experienced by many Indigenous communities. Road blockades and demonstrations intensified around El Alto, La Paz and the highland community of Warisata.
The conflict included attacks on security forces and disruption of roads and fuel supplies. Those facts did not remove the state’s obligation to distinguish people posing a threat from unarmed residents and demonstrators. The later United States litigation focused on specific civilian deaths rather than declaring every death during the unrest legally identical.
Civilians killed in homes, fields and streets
The civil case record describes soldiers firing in populated areas during operations in September and October. Among the eight deaths litigated were eight-year-old Marlene Rojas Ramos, shot through a bedroom window in Warisata; Teodosia Morales Mamani, who was pregnant when a bullet entered a house; and Arturo Mamani Mamani, shot while tending crops.
The Center for Constitutional Rights states that 58 civilians were killed and more than 400 injured under the government’s military response. Contemporary and later public accounts sometimes use higher totals. This archive uses 58 for the defined record underlying the civil case and does not treat every broader estimate as interchangeable.
The 2011 criminal convictions
Bolivia opened a trial of responsibilities after Congress authorized proceedings. In 2011, the Supreme Court convicted five former military commanders and two former ministers who remained in the country. The sentences reported for the commanders ranged from ten to fifteen years; the former ministers received three-year terms.
Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín had left Bolivia for the United States. They were charged in the same Bolivian case, but Bolivian law did not permit their trial in absentia. The domestic judgment therefore supplied individual criminal accountability for seven participants without resolving the allegations against the two senior former officials.
Mamani v. Sánchez de Lozada
Nine surviving relatives filed claims in the United States under the Torture Victim Protection Act and Florida wrongful-death law. In April 2018, a federal jury found Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín liable for extrajudicial killings and awarded ten million dollars in compensatory damages.
The trial judge initially set the verdict aside. In August 2020, the Eleventh Circuit vacated that decision and returned the case for reconsideration under the correct legal standard. In April 2021, the district court reinstated the judgment, finding sufficient evidence that the deaths were unlawful and that the defendants were liable under command responsibility.
The civil judgment did not impose imprisonment and did not constitute a Bolivian criminal verdict. It determined civil liability for the eight deaths presented by the plaintiffs.
Settlement and the remaining gap
On 28 September 2023, the parties agreed to a settlement providing compensation to the plaintiffs in an undisclosed amount. The Center for Constitutional Rights records the settlement as the current end of the United States civil litigation.
The settlement delivered a measure of redress to the participating families, but it did not substitute for a Bolivian criminal trial of the two former senior officials. The sources reviewed do not show their return to Bolivia or a final criminal judgment against them there.
Why the file is only partially adjudicated
The case is not unsolved in the sense of having no judicial findings. Seven people were convicted in Bolivia, and two former officials were held liable in a U.S. civil action. At the same time, the highest-level Bolivian criminal charges were not tried to judgment.
Crime by Region therefore classifies the case as partially adjudicated. It preserves three separate legal categories: criminal convictions in Bolivia, civil liability and settlement in the United States, and unresolved criminal proceedings against defendants who remained abroad.
Case timeline
- 20 September 2003 Marlene Rojas Ramos is killed in Warisata during a military operation.
- 12–13 October 2003 Security operations in and around El Alto produce many of the deaths later litigated.
- 17 October 2003 Sánchez de Lozada resigns and leaves Bolivia.
- 2007 Surviving relatives file the consolidated U.S. civil litigation.
- 2011 Bolivia’s Supreme Court convicts five military commanders and two former ministers.
- 3 April 2018 A U.S. federal jury returns a ten-million-dollar verdict for the plaintiffs.
- 3 August 2020 The Eleventh Circuit vacates the order that had set the verdict aside.
- 5 April 2021 The district court reinstates the judgment.
- 28 September 2023 The parties settle the U.S. civil case for an undisclosed amount.
Questions readers ask
How many people were killed in Black October?
The later U.S. civil case record uses 58 civilian deaths and more than 400 injuries. Other public accounts use broader totals, so this page identifies the scope of the number it uses.
Who was convicted in Bolivia?
Five former military commanders and two former ministers were convicted in the 2011 trial of responsibilities.
Were Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín criminally convicted?
Not in the records reviewed. They were charged in Bolivia but not tried there in absentia, and the U.S. case determined civil liability rather than criminal guilt.
What happened to the 2018 jury verdict?
The trial judge set it aside, the Eleventh Circuit vacated that order in 2020, and the district court reinstated the judgment in 2021.
How did the U.S. litigation end?
The parties agreed to an undisclosed settlement on 28 September 2023 that compensated the plaintiffs.
Why is this case only partially adjudicated?
Domestic convictions and U.S. civil liability exist, but the senior former officials were not tried to final criminal judgment in Bolivia.