Status boundary: A 2017 trial court convicted Leopoldo Fernández and three co-defendants. In August 2025, Bolivia’s Supreme Court annulled the ordinary proceedings against Fernández because it held that a former prefect was entitled to a special trial of responsibilities. That ruling was procedural, not a finding that the killings did not occur or a merits acquittal.
A country divided by regional conflict
In 2008, Bolivia faced a severe confrontation between President Evo Morales’s national government and opposition-led departments seeking greater regional autonomy. Pando, in the northern Amazon, was governed by prefect Leopoldo Fernández. Rural unions and Indigenous organizations were closely associated with the governing Movement Toward Socialism, while civic committees and regional officials opposed many of the national government’s reforms.
The archive includes this context because the people traveling through Pando were not moving through an ordinary public-safety situation. Political mobilization, road closures and armed civilian groups had already raised the danger of lethal confrontation. Context does not determine individual criminal guilt, which must rest on evidence and lawful judgments.
The roadblocks near Porvenir
On 11 September, rural workers and students traveled toward Cobija for a meeting. The IACHR follow-up report recorded that deep trenches had been dug across the Puerto Rico–Porvenir road in the Tres Barracas area to stop the group’s advance.
Confrontations developed around Porvenir and nearby points. Witness accounts collected by international bodies described indiscriminate gunfire against the rural workers’ gathering. Human Rights Watch called for an immediate, impartial investigation and warned against accepting competing political narratives in place of evidence.
The event was later described as a massacre by international and regional investigators. This page uses that established name while avoiding collective blame: responsibility cannot be assigned to every resident, civic supporter, rural worker or public official associated with either political camp.
At least eleven deaths — and why later totals differ
The IACHR documented at least eleven deaths, including two officials from the Pando prefecture, along with fifty injured people and dozens displaced into the countryside or to La Paz. Human Rights Watch later used a total of thirteen deaths in its monitoring of the trial.
Some later reporting, including coverage of the 2025 Supreme Court decision, referred to fifteen deaths. The difference reflects changing official counts and different decisions about whether to include deaths connected to the wider violence around Cobija and the airport.
The archive therefore does not flatten the record into a single false certainty. It uses “at least eleven” for the core Porvenir events and explains the broader reported range of thirteen to fifteen.
A long and contested prosecution
Fernández was arrested shortly after the killings. Prosecutors brought charges against numerous people, and the proceedings lasted for years. Human Rights Watch reported concerns about the length of Fernández’s pretrial detention as well as threats or pressure affecting justice officials, witnesses and victims.
The IACHR later granted precautionary measures to lawyers Mary Carrasco and Juan Alipaz, who represented victims in the Porvenir proceeding. The Commission found that reported threats and harassment placed them at serious risk as the case developed.
These due-process and protection concerns matter simultaneously. Protecting victims’ representatives does not remove defendants’ fair-trial rights, and identifying procedural violations does not erase the obligation to investigate the deaths.
The 2017 homicide convictions
On 10 March 2017, the Sixth Sentencing Court in La Paz delivered Judgment No. 10/2017. Leopoldo Fernández was convicted of homicide and sentenced to fifteen years. Evin Ventura received nine years, Herman Justiniano eight years and Marcelo Mejido five years.
The judgment did not produce a simple, universally accepted end to the case. Fernández appealed and maintained that the ordinary criminal court lacked jurisdiction because the accusations concerned acts attributed to him while he served as prefect.
This page records the convictions because they were judicial acts with real legal consequences. It does not describe the 2017 result as final after the later Supreme Court decision.
The Supreme Court’s 2025 jurisdiction ruling
On 5 August 2025, the Criminal Chamber of Bolivia’s Supreme Court annulled the ordinary proceedings against Fernández. Reporting on the ruling said the court concluded that his right to the special jurisdiction applicable to a former prefect had been violated.
The court directed the record to the Attorney General so that a trial of responsibilities could be pursued. In Bolivia, that route is a special proceeding for certain former high authorities. It changes the forum and procedural path; it does not itself decide whether the accused committed homicide.
No new final judgment from that special route was located for this update. The 2025 ruling therefore returned the central high-level prosecution to an unresolved state.
Why this case remains partially adjudicated
The Porvenir file has substantial judicial history, including multiple convictions. But the principal ordinary judgment against the former prefect was annulled, and the sources reviewed did not establish a replacement final judgment under the required special procedure.
The archive classifies the case as “partially adjudicated / proceedings reopened.” It avoids calling Fernández acquitted and avoids treating the annulled conviction as still final. It will require revision if the Attorney General files a new case, the competent legislature authorizes proceedings, or a court issues a new judgment.
Case timeline
- 11 September 2008 Killings and mass injuries occur near Porvenir and Tres Barracas.
- September 2008 Fernández is arrested; international bodies call for an impartial investigation.
- October 2009 Prosecutors file accusations in the ordinary criminal proceeding.
- 10 March 2017 A La Paz trial court convicts Fernández and three co-defendants.
- 2017–2019 Appeals and release decisions continue while victims’ representatives report threats.
- January 2020 The IACHR grants precautionary measures to two victims’ representatives.
- 5 August 2025 The Supreme Court annuls the ordinary proceedings against Fernández and orders the special-jurisdiction route.
- 2026 archive review No replacement final judgment is located.
Questions readers ask
How many people died?
The IACHR documented at least eleven deaths. Later monitoring and court reporting used totals of thirteen or fifteen depending on scope.
Was Leopoldo Fernández convicted?
Yes, in 2017. The Supreme Court annulled the ordinary proceedings against him in 2025 because of the forum in which he had been tried.
Was he acquitted in 2025?
No. The ruling annulled the process on jurisdiction and due-process grounds and directed the record toward a trial of responsibilities.
Were other defendants sentenced?
Yes. Evin Ventura, Herman Justiniano and Marcelo Mejido received prison terms in the 2017 judgment.
Why is the case unresolved?
The principal ordinary proceeding no longer supplies a final conviction, and no replacement judgment from the special-procedure route was located.
What happens next?
The 2025 ruling directed the record to the Attorney General. Future steps depend on Bolivia’s trial-of-responsibilities procedure.