Emilio Martinez entrevistó a Jacob Ostreicher en Santa Cruz quién había sido injustamente encarcelado 18 meses, siendo un empresario que llegó a invertir

Interview JO with Emilio Martinez: Special Interview Eju.tv
By Emilio Emilio Martínez

Between a wall full of photos of his grandchildren, a shelf with copies of the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and a large world map, Jacob Ostreicher we get to talk in depth experience in Bolivia. It is the first time you talk to the press since his release from prison, with alternatives including house arrest and arraignment.
It's been 18 months since his incarceration and 7 since we wrote that his seemed to be the "Dreyfus Affair" Bolivia. Time proved that we were not wrong.
His hands tremble, especially the right, throughout the interview. Ostreicher explains that "no one in my family for five generations has had this disease." Refers to Parkinson's disease, adding that the physician credited with developing the condition to the hunger strike he held for seven months.
JO - Only drink liquids, lost forty kilos. The condition of the prison is something you do not have enough time to tell how bad it is ... It was all the stress, the failure to see my family for 560 days ... This is the result.
MS - Do you think your example may encourage Bolivians to denounce extortion?
JO - I have that hope. I hope this does not stop the fact that I am American, and then go back to my country everything is as if nothing had happened. All my suffering would not have been in vain if I could make a difference in the future for this country. To help hundreds, maybe thousands of people, making a change for future generations. If so, my suffering will have been a small payment will have been worthwhile. I hope this is not just about me, but about the whole justice system in Bolivia.
"The Jewish community was afraid of the government"

MS - How mobilized the support of the Jewish community in his defense, both domestically and internationally?
JO - To be honest, the Jewish community in Bolivia was quite disappointing. When I got involved in this issue and I approached them, they promised everything to my wife but did not do much. Now I understand that they were afraid of the government. Currently, I understand a little more the system, I know that they were afraid. The Jewish community in the world itself approached me.
EM - His case had broad implications for the U.S. Congress and it was present before a committee of the House of Representatives.
JO - There were several public hearings and prepared a project for a law that would take my name, Jacob Law, by which the people working in the government of Bolivia could not travel to the United States.
"The FBI investigated me for me"
We asked about the involvement of the FBI in the investigation of his case.
JO - The FBI investigated me for me, because the U.S. government was not going to speak on my behalf until they were 100% sure my honesty. No other country in the world to fight against drug trafficking and the United States. They wanted to make sure I had nothing to do with drug trafficking before acting on a political level. They did a report from the day I was born and it showed the U.S. government.
MS - Do you have uncovered the case without the intervention of U.S. congressmen and Sean Penn?
JO - Had it not been for Sean Penn, would not be talking here. I would in Palmasola, even in the clinic, no matter how sick he was.
Network of extortion: the tip of the iceberg
MS - Do people linked to the network of extortion that has not been touched? Are we seeing just the tip of the iceberg?
There are many people who are not yet in jail. I can not understand how (the judges) and Rodríguez Orellana not yet in prison. Orellana even said I was guilty until proven otherwise in violation of international laws and Bolivia.
EM - Machinery extortion network still works?
JO - Absolutely.

"It was the biggest robbery in the history of Bolivia"

Ostreicher believes that his imprisonment was part of a "scheme planned, premeditated" by "government officials" to steal their property.
JO - lost 20 million kilos of rice. It is possibly the biggest theft in the history of Bolivia, as I said people familiar with the case. A robbery done by people who work in government. 400,000 bags of 50 kilos of rice. More than 1,200 trucks. It took about 2 to 3 weeks and was carried out at 4 or 5 different points, and not a word of this came out in the media because I kept in jail. Government officials took me to court, hiding behind the law to steal everything. There are attorneys, but persecutors (the pun works in English: "prosecutors" and "persecutors").
Ostreicher not believed to have tried to "no error".
JO - The most painful thing is that they knew from the first minute that I was not guilty, I would not be so devastated if they had made a mistake. They knew he was an innocent man, I have the documents to prove it. It was planned, premeditated, the whole scheme of how to steal. I was led to believe they were investigating something, I gave them more than 60 hours of testimony, I went to the U.S. four times to bring documentation. After they realized how much money was invested here, set up the scheme to take everything. For 18 months, Fernando Aguilera went to the media to say they had evidence against me and I could not speak a word. When going to a hearing, nearly 30 hearings, police prevented me from talking to the media. Scheme was a tremendous scale armed.
A chapter that has special Ostreicher pain is the harassment of his wife, forcing her to leave the country for several months.
JO - The prosecutor Roberto Acha told CNN they had proof that I was a drug dealer, and my wife spoke with CNN responding that it was not true. Then Isabelino Gomez filed charges against my wife. There was also another case against my former lawyer Abel Montano, who had to leave his post. One day my wife went to the prison to take kosher food, enters warrantless Palmasola and put it into the women's prison. The police would not let her talk to his lawyer. I immediately spoke to the U.S. embassy and they communicated with the governor of the prison, saying, "If this woman does not come out in the second will have serious problems." The governor spoke to someone and she left. Then the ambassador said it was dangerous for her to continue in this country.
EM - Is preparing a presentation of its case to international organizations?
JO - The High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN was present in several of my audience, they know of my case from the beginning.
"I feel like a dead man walking"
MS - How do you see your life from here on out?
JO - I do not know how it will end the case. It is a very sad situation. People call me and congratulate me everywhere, but I feel sad because I am still not a free man. Something inside me died. Everyone is happy and I feel like a dead man walking (a reference to the movie "Dead Man Walking" starring Sean Penn). I feel totally destroyed. I do not think I can return everything taken from me. The only thing that comforts me is the ability to make a difference, promoting change in justice, only then could eventually recover.