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🇧🇴 Bolivia /Disasters & Emergencies

Viacha tragedy: Explosives and grenades found at Bolívar barracks

From El Deber · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Under investigation
  • Bolivia’s Defence Ministry said rescue teams found booster explosives and other unidentified materials at the Bolívar military base in Viacha, where two explosions killed about 10 service members and injured more than 80 people.
  • Authorities said a damaged structure beside the destroyed area contained weapons and a large quantity of grenades, but they have not established that the grenades or other weapons detonated.
  • The blasts damaged homes and civilian facilities up to about one kilometre away, while prosecutors and forensic specialists investigate the cause.

The explosions at Bolivia’s Bolívar military base in Viacha involved more than the pyrotechnic material cited in an initial explanation, Defence Minister Ernesto Justiniano said. Rescue teams found booster devices, explosive charges used to initiate or reinforce a detonation, along with other materials that still require expert identification.

We have seen booster devices, which are explosive multipliers, and some other devices that still have to be identified.

· Ernesto JustinianoBolivia’s defence minister described materials found by rescue teams at the military base.

The blasts occurred at about 2:30 p.m. on Friday, September 4, inside the base, around 30 kilometres southwest of La Paz. They killed about 10 uniformed personnel and injured more than 80 people, most of them civilians. The impact shattered windows five blocks away, and residents and municipal officials reported feeling the detonations across a radius of roughly one kilometre.

Justiniano said a large structure beside the destroyed section contained military matériel and a “large quantity of grenades.” The building, constructed on a foundation and plinth of massive stones, suffered serious damage. Authorities began evacuating the weapons and urged residents not to approach or handle suspicious objects that may have been thrown beyond the compound. They were told to move away and alert police, firefighters or military personnel.

We are evacuating military matériel from that depot.

· Ernesto JustinianoThe minister said authorities were removing weapons from a damaged structure beside the blast site.

The minister stressed that authorities had not established that the grenades or stored weapons detonated. Defence’s preliminary account said the first explosion involved black powder from pyrotechnic material kept at the site. The second blast was far more powerful, and its cause remains unknown. “We have never said that the entire tragedy was caused by fireworks,” Justiniano said.

We have never said that the entire tragedy was caused by fireworks.

· Ernesto JustinianoJustiniano rejected the idea that pyrotechnic material alone had been established as the cause.

The final determination will depend on analyses by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Institute of Forensic Investigations and specialist teams. Damage outside the base included broken windows, displaced corrugated roofing, cracked walls, and stones, blocks and metal fragments thrown onto nearby homes. Regulations require explosives to be stored in an open area at least 700 metres from urban zones.

Five blocks away, windows have already been shattered.

· Jenrry PatziThe Viacha mayor described damage observed during an inspection on the night of the explosions.
About this summary

Originally published by El Deber in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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