Marchers intended to enter the town of Sacaba and proceed to the departmental capital of Cochabamba to protest the ousting of Bolivian president Evo Morales, but were stopped by the police and military.

[1] Following the killing of another ten demonstrators and bystanders at Senkata on 19 November 2019, the pro-Morales movement entered roundtable talks with the Áñez government.

Opposition protesters denounced the candidacy of President Evo Morales, who was running for a fourth term, and claimed that he was benefiting from electoral fraud.

Following a police mutiny, the initial conclusions of an OAS audit of the election, and public urging by the commander of the Armed Forces, Morales resigned on 10 November 2019.

Supporters, including Morales' coca grower base in the Chapare region of Cochabamba department, immediately began protests denouncing his ouster as a military coup.

[citation needed] Following the widespread police mutiny before the Áñez government took power, Colonel Jaime Edwin Zurita Trujillo became the Cochabamba departmental commander on November 8.

Upon taking command, Zurita publicly supported a right-wing motorcycle gang and called for them to mobilize in opposition to pro-MAS attacks, including forming barricades.

On 15 November, as part of this march from the Chapare region to La Paz thousands of Indigenous and cocalero protesters were passing through Sacaba.

[9] On 14 November 2019, amid continuing protests,violence and shortages in several main cities, Áñez and her cabinet signed a decree to enlist the police and army to pacify the country.

According to the preliminary OAS investigation, the group was initially met with verbal instructions that the Defensoría del Pueblo (Bolivian Human Rights Ombudsman's Office) was on its way to intervene.

The police commander, Colonel Jaime Zurita said, that they should wait 30 minutes and remove their gas masks, set their wiphalas (Indigenous flags) down, and send women to the front.

[citation needed] Arturo Murillo, Bolivian government minister at the time, affirmed that all of the deceased had been "killed with a shotgun, with a 22-caliber bullet, with dynamite, that is, they were assassinated by their own companions.

"[citation needed] Victims included: The police and government initially denied responsibility for the day's events, reporting that 201 people were involved in "violent acts" and 10 men were arrests.

However, witnesses have reported that State forces destroyed evidence of the massacre from picking up bullet casings to impeding access to autopsies or providing incomplete information.

[17] On 28 November, Áñez repealed the controversial Supreme Decree 4078, after a second massacre occurred in the Senkata district of El Alto, in which another nine people were killed and more injured.

[18] On 7 December 2019, the government offered compensation of 50,000 bolivianos (US$7,500) to victims' families, with a clause that dictated that they must give up their right to file international judicial complaints on the matter.

The report "reminded the Bolivian state that lethal force cannot be used merely to maintain or restore public order" and urged that those responsible be prosecuted, investigated, and sanctioned.

[2] On 10 December 2019 the Bolivian government and the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) authorized an international Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) to conduct an investigation into the events that occurred during the 2019 political crisis.

[citation needed] In March 2020, the Plurinational Assembly convened a multi-party commission of members of MAS, PDC and UD to investigate the deaths at the two locations.

[citation needed] The GIEI presented its report on human rights abuses during the 2019 crisis to affected communities at various points across the country, including at the Huayllani Bridge on 19 August 2019.