Bolivia's agro-environmental court judge shot dead amid wave of drug-related violence

Víctor Hugo Claure, dean of Bolivia's Agro-Environmental Court, was shot dead late Thursday in the eastern city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in what authorities describe as an attack carried out by hitmen and which falls within a sequence of violent events linked to the growing influence of drug trafficking in the country's main city. The killing has prompted unanimous condemnation from the judicial system and from opposition politicians, and poses a direct challenge to the administration of President Rodrigo Paz, in office since November.