Bolivia: HRF warns judges ignoring UN decision will face Magnitsky sanctions

NEW YORK (May 6, 2025) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns Bolivia’s Sixth Court for Criminal, Anti-Corruption, and Violence Against Women Matters in La Paz, presided over by Judge Marco Antonio Vargas, for its refusal to comply with a March 2025 decision issued by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD), which determined that the pretrial detention of Santa Cruz Gov. Luis Fernando Camacho is arbitrary and violates international law.

Despite the UN body’s unequivocal call for Camacho’s immediate release and for him to be guaranteed a fair trial in liberty, the tribunal rejected the ruling on the technicality that it was “not signed,” despite it being an official UN resolution available on the UNWGAD website. Bolivia’s attorney general, Ricardo Condori, dismissed the UNWGAD’s opinion as a mere “assessment,” claiming it holds no binding authority — a position that directly contradicts Bolivia’s international legal obligations.

As HRF emphasized during a press conference in La Paz following the UNWGAD decision, the opinion is not simply a recommendation. Under Bolivia’s own legal framework — specifically the doctrine of the bloque de constitucionalidad (constitutional block) — ratified international human rights treaties are fully incorporated into domestic law. As such, the Plurinational State of Bolivia is legally required to implement the UN’s decision and release Camacho without delay.

“This is not a matter of political discretion — it is a binding legal obligation arising from Bolivia’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” HRF Chief Legal Officer Javier El-Hage said. “The UN Working Group’s decision is binding on both Bolivia’s executive and judicial branches of government, and those who continue to defy it are placing themselves on a direct path to international accountability through sanctions for gross human rights violations, including US-imposed Magnitsky sanctions.”

The UNWGAD’s opinion, issued on March 31, concluded that Camacho’s arrest was illegal, his detention politically motivated, and his fundamental rights — including due process, liberty, and the presumption of innocence — were severely violated. Following the ruling, Camacho’s defense team requested a hearing to end his preventive detention, but a Bolivian court rejected the motion on May 2, amid protests and attacks by pro-government mobs, who harassed Camacho’s legal team and family members as they exited the court in La Paz.

The Bolivian regime’s refusal to honor the UN decision demonstrates a disturbing disregard for international law and further highlights the ongoing erosion of judicial independence under President Luis Arce’s hybrid authoritarian rule. On Monday, in a clear act of retaliation, the regime ordered the arrest of Judge Lilian Moreno, who had annulled the arrest order for former president Evo Morales. Morales — charged with human trafficking — has been locked in a fierce and often violent power struggle with Arce, aggressively and illegally seeking to run for president once again.

“It is disheartening and deeply disturbing to see the Bolivian government pushing the judiciary to show such blatant disregard for the law,” said Martín Camacho, a former Bolivian judge himself and Gov. Camacho’s lead domestic counsel. “Despite the dangerous weaponization of the judiciary, we will continue trying to enforce this important international decision, pursuing every domestic judicial avenue until Luis Fernando is free. We will leave no stone unturned.” 

Unless the regime and the courts reverse course, HRF will seek to invoke the United States’ Global Magnitsky Act to pursue targeted sanctions against not only the Bolivian minister of justice and the attorney general, both of whom have publicly called for the judiciary to disregard the UN ruling, but also against the judges complicit in violating Camacho’s rights, including not only Vargas, but also judges Germán Ramos Mamani and Liz Avilés Condori of the court that issued last Friday’s ruling.

HRF calls on the international community — particularly democratic governments committed to the rule of law — to join us in condemning these recent actions and to support holding Bolivia’s subservient judiciary accountable.