According to the law, any person can file a criminal complaint in a police station related to violence against a woman.^[10] The authorities in charge of receiving, investigating and processing complaints must provide the women with support and dignified and respectful treatment, in accordance with their situation, facilitating as much as possible the steps they must take.

Furthermore, Article 53 of Law 348 introduces the Special Force for the Fight against Violence as a specialized agency of the Bolivian police in charge of preventing, assisting and investigating, identifying and apprehending the alleged perpetrators of acts of violence against women and the family, under the functional direction of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in coordination with public and private entities. The obligations of this entity are the following:

• Receive oral or written complaints from female victims of violence or third parties.
• Identify the perpetrators and participants in cases of violence, apprehend them immediately in case of flagrante delicto and bring them before the Public Prosecutor’s Office within a maximum of eight hours.
• Assist the assaulted persons and their children or other dependents, even when they are living inside the other dependents’ home.
• Take minutes of the events that have occurred.
• Gather and secure all evidence.
• Confiscate the weapons and objects used to threaten and assault.
• Guide victims on the remedies available to them under the law and on the existing care and protection services available.
• Take the assaulted person to the health services, to give them immediate medical attention.
• If the woman in a situation of violence requests it, accompany her and assist her while she removes her personal belongings from her home or another place and take her where she indicates or to a shelter or temporary refuge.
• Follow up with the woman for 72 hours, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the protection provided to the woman and other persons at risk.

Bolivian law refers to the legitimacy of evidence, stating that all legally obtained evidence and elements of conviction that may lead to discovering the truth, will be legitimate. Moreover, the judge will not request evidence, statements or expert opinions that could constitute revictimization.^[11]

A witness is compelled to answer truthfully the questions that are asked, otherwise they may commit false accusations, punishable under the Bolivian Criminal Code. Furthermore, in the event that they refrain from testifying without just cause, they will be sentenced to one to three months’ imprisonment or a fine of 20 to 60 days’ wages for committing judicial disobedience.

According to Article 93 of Law 348, the woman in a situation of violence may decide whether to testify or to present evidence by alternative means, without having to go to court, or to give evidence without being obliged to meet the aggressor.

Furthermore, the Bolivian Code of Criminal Procedure establishes those situations in which individuals may abstain from testifying in the following articles:

• Article 195:

The following are not obliged to appear before the judge or court: the President and Vice President of the Republic, Presidents of the Legislative Chambers, President of the Supreme Court, President of the Constitutional Court, Attorney General of the Republic, Ombudsman, representatives of diplomatic missions, Members of Parliament and Ministers of State, who shall testify at the place where they perform their duties, at their domicile or in writing.

• Article 196:

They may abstain from testifying against the accused, his spouse or partner, his relatives by blood up to the fourth degree or by adoption and by affinity up to the second degree.

• Article 197:

Persons shall refrain from testifying about facts that have come to their knowledge, by reason of their trade or profession, and which relate to legally established duties of secrecy and reserve. These persons may not refuse to testify when they are released by the interested party from the duty of secrecy.

• Article 199:

When the witness does not reside in the judicial district where he/she is to give his/her testimony and it is not possible to have him/her present, his/her testimony shall be ordered by exhortative letter or order issued to the judicial authority of his/her residence.

Yes. According to Article 154 of Law 548 (Child and Adolescent Code), the Public Prosecutor’s Office through its specialized units and the Ministry of Justice through the Plurinational Victim Assistance Service System, within the framework of its competencies, will assist the child or adolescent who is a victim or witness of crimes, for his or her psycho-affective recovery, by providing:

• respectful specialized treatment, with quality and warmth, under conditions of reserve, confidentiality, in their mother tongue or appropriate language, and with the assistance of a multidisciplinary team
• the application of care protocols and official critical routes, also taking into account the anticipation of evidence to avoid revictimization

Under the Bolivian Criminal Code:

• In the crime of homicide, if the victim of the crime turns out to be a child or adolescent, the penalty will be increased by two-thirds.
• In the case of very serious, serious and minor injuries, when the victim is a child or adolescent, the minimum and maximum penalty will be increased by two-thirds.
• In the case of rape, if the crime is committed against a person of either sex under 14 years old, it will be punishable by deprivation of liberty for 20 to 25 years, even if there is no use of force or intimidation and consent is alleged.
• Moreover, the fact of committing the crime against a minor constitutes an aggravating circumstance thus typified in the code.
• In the case of sexual abuse, if the victim is a child or adolescent, the custodial sentence will be from 10 to 15 years.
• In the crime of abduction, the minimum and maximum penalty will be increased by one-third, when the victim is a child or adolescent.

Article 272-bis of the Bolivian Criminal Code includes the crime of domestic or family violence, for which it imposes a prison sentence of two to four years, if it does not constitute another crime, although it does not specifically mention first-time offenses.