Akin Gump Defeats Attempt to Vacate $10 Million Judgment in Bolivia Extrajudicial Killings Case

(Washington, D.C.) - A federal judge in Florida, in the latest victory for Akin Gump in a 14-year-long human rights case, has rejected an attempt by Bolivia's former president, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, and former defense minister, José Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, to vacate a $10 million damages award against them for the 2003 massacre of unarmed Indigenous people. Akin Gump represents pro bono the family members of those who were killed and who are seeking justice.

A jury had found the former officials liable for the deaths under the Torture Victim Protection Act in 2018. It was the first time in U.S. history that a former head of state sat before his accusers in a U.S. human rights trial. (Click here to learn more.)

A month later, though, in an unusual move, the trial court set aside the jury verdict and entered its own judgment holding the defendants not liable based on insufficient evidence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit subsequently vacated the district court's judgment and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings. (Click here to learn more.) The defendants filed a second motion to vacate the jury verdict and damages award, but the trial court rejected that effort and instead entered final judgment on the $10 million verdict in favor of the family members.

To read more about this latest development in the case, please click here.

James Tysse, partner in Akin Gump's Supreme Court and appellate practice, led the team in the briefing of the case. He was joined by counsel Lide Paterno, Saurabh Sharad and Matthew Schmitten as well as Akin Gump partners Steven Schulman, Joseph Sorkin and Rubén Muñoz, all of whom worked in close collaboration with lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights and Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic.

Founded in 1945, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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