Angry Bolivian Mob Kills 2 Brazilians Suspected of Murder

Two Brazilians arrested in Bolivia on suspicion of murder were pulled from a jail cell and burned to death by a lynch mob, Bolivian media said.

The suspects were detained following a triple-homicide in San Matias, a town on the Bolivian side of the countries’ shared border.

Once news of the arrests spread, hundreds of residents filled the streets of San Matias to demand vengeance.

Police deployed tear gas to break up the protest, but the mob overwhelmed the officers and occupied the station, where the vigilantes dragged the two suspects from their cell, doused them with gasoline and set them on fire.

Uno television broadcast images of the burned bodies lying on a street next to the police station.

Prior to the lynching, San Matias police chief Edwin Rojas identified the subjects as Rafael Max Diez, 27, and Jefferson Castro da Lima, 22.

The preliminary investigation indicated that Diez shot Pablo Paraba, Wanderley Costa and Edgar Suarez during an argument over the price of some motorcycles the Brazilians were trying to sell, Rojas said.

Published in Notitas de Noticias