Suspect Buried Alive: 200 Villagers Block Roads As Alleged Rapist and Murderer Thrown Into Grave

In the southern highlands of Bolivia, villagers buried Santos Ramos, 17, in the grave of the women he is suspected to have raped and murdered, according to reports.

The chief prosecutor Jose Luis Barrios said more than 200 infuriated locals found Ramos and buried him alive in the grave of his alleged victim, 35-year-old Leandra Arias Janco on Wednesday night.

Officials said villagers blocked roads into the village to stop police from saving the suspect the following day.

"A reporter for a local radio station, who would only speak anonymously for fear of reprisals, told the media that Mr Ramos was tied up at the woman's funeral," according to BBC News.

Villagers reportedly threw Ramos into the open grave alongside the Janco's coffin and filled the grave with dirt.

Colquechaca is a town of about 5,000 inhabitants located about 207 miles south-east of the Bolivian capital, La Paz.

Lynching happens in rural, poor parts of Bolivia where police and other authorities are scarce, causing residents to come up with their own justice system, according to reports.

"Also in Potosí on Wednesday, residents of the Quechua indigenous community of Tres Cruces stoned to death a suspected thief and burned his accomplice alive," told Barrios to the Associated Press.

Barrios told reporters the two had earlier robbed a car and killed its driver.

According to the International Business Times, a Bolivian police officer earlier this year was lynched in the city of El Alto after he was mistaken for a thief.

Bolivian lawmakers passed a bill in June 2010 allowing "native justice" or lynching by indigenous mobs, according to reports.

In 2010, native justice was reportedly carried out in the Bolivian community of Juruma, where the natives lynched Santiago Flores, 51, after accusing him of two murders, two sexual assaults and various robberies, according to the daily La Prensa.

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