Bolivia: Vigilante Justice responding to insecurity

El Alto residents burned alive to find a thief caught in flagrante delicto. There were other similar cases. This reignited the debate over the death penalty, although the government denied. The lynching of offenders occurred on Sunday after he was caught stealing a house in the Rio Seco neighborhood, said Jorge Toro, national director of the Special Force to Fight Crime. The fury of the crowd was such that even burned the police vehicle which was to address the victim, who died of injuries suffered by the fire. “People are angry at El Alto. On Saturday there were three attempts to burn other thieves,” said the police chief, who recalled that they were also two uniformed police officers were mistaken for criminals and received a beating in the Santa Rosa. On Monday, the city was the scene of marches demanding the Government and the National Assembly approve the death penalty for rapists and murderers. Another mobilization took place in the capital and was led by peasants. Read Article