Bolivia: indigenous opposition leader arrested

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[3]Aymara indigenous leader and opposition lawmaker Rafael Quispe says he will file "abduction" charges against the Bolivian government after he was arrested in La Paz, and shortly released when a judge found there was no grounds for his detention. Quispe, of the left-opposition Unidad Demócrata party, was brought before the Second Anti-corruption Tribunal for having supposedly missed court appearances in a legal case against him for alleged "harassment" of Felipa Huanca, a militant of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and former candidate for governor of La Paz department. The case stems from Quispe's accusations that Huanca was involved in embezzlement of funds slated for development of indigenous communities when she was La Paz head of the Bartolina Sisa Federation of Campesina Women in 2014. (Photo: Erbol via Los Tiempos de Cochabamba [4])

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Aymara indigenous leader and opposition lawmaker Rafael Quispe [6] says he will file "abduction" charges against the Bolivian government after he was arrested in La Paz Feb. 21, and shortly released when a judge found there was no grounds for his detention. Quispe, of the left-opposition Unidad Demócrata [7] party, was brought before the Second Anti-corruption Tribunal for having supposedly missed court appearances in a legal case against him for alleged "harassment" of Felipa Huanca, a militant of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS [8]) and former candidate for governor of La Paz department. The case stems from Quispe's accusations that Huanca was involved in embezzlement [9] of funds slated for development of indigenous communities when she was La Paz head of the Bartolina Sisa Federation of Campesina Women in 2014. (La Razón [10], La Paz, Correo del Sur [11], Sucre, Los Tiempos [4], Cochabamba, Feb. 21; La Razon [12], Jan. 11)