[2] On August 10, 2008, a recall referendum was held in Bolivia on the mandates of President Evo Morales, his Vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera and eight of the nine regional prefects.
Campesinos, largely aligned with the Morales government, feared their recently granted land titles were at risk, although in fact they were safely stored in a military barracks.
[3] The event culminated in the spectacular arrest in September of the Prefect of Pando, Leopoldo Fernández, for the departmental government's role in the massacre[6] of backers of President Evo Morales.
The defendants are: Leopoldo Fernández Ferreira, Jorge Lengua Áñez, Olman Pino Soria, Rosendo Domínguez Deromides, Melitón Brito Ferreira, Homer Polanco Ventura, Felsin Fernández Medina, William Musuco Rodríguez, Ronald Musuco Rodríguez, Néstor Da Silva Rivero, Danilo Huari Cartagena, William Terrazas López, Juan Marcelo Mejido Flores, Abel Janco Cáceres, Adhemar Herrera Guerra, Hugo Apaza Sahonero, Felipe Vigabriel Villarroel, Máximo Aillón Martínez, Agapito Vira Cuéllar, Oswaldo Valdivia Avariega, Nilma Banegas Becerra, Hugo Mopi Soliz, Herman Justiniano Negrete, Marcial Peña Toyama, Roberto Rea Ruiz, Wilson Da Silva Ramallo y Evin Ventura Voght.
[8] Roberto Rea Ruiz, Homer Polanco Ventura, and William Terrazas López accepted their guilt in an abbreviated trial and were sentenced to three to six years in jail.
[9] In March 2017, Fernández was found guilty as an indirect author of homicide, and acquitted of the crimes of murder, terrorism, criminal association, and light and severe assault; he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.