of public defenders is insufficient. Although Bolivian law prohibits pretrial periods exceeding 18 months, it is common for periods of pretrial detention to last longer than this. On the orders of a social worker, children between 11 and 16 may be held indefinitely in special centers without judicial review. Although torture is forbidden under the Bolivian constitution and law, security forces frequently engage in it, and punishment for such violations is rare. Rights of persons on trial The Bolivian judiciary has been described as “corrupt, overburdened, and weakened by vacancies at its highest levels.” As of 2010, the Bolivian Supreme Court had an 8000-case backlog, including cases dating back to 2003, and the Judicial Council, which is charged with legal oversight, also had a considerable backlog. The military justice system tends “to avoid rulings that would embarrass the military.” Officially, defendants enjoy the right under the Bolivian constitution to a speedy trial, to an attorney, to due process, and to appeal. In practice, these rights are often violated. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) reported in December 2009, that only “55 percent of municipalities had judges, 23 percent government investigators, and 3 percent public defenders.” When it comes to the roles of the police and judiciary, much of Bolivia is, in effect, all but lawless. Although the Bolivian constitution prohibits capital punishment, in many areas the lack of efficient policing and of a well-functioning court system leads to so-called “community justice” – in other words, mobs taking the law into their own hands and violently murdering criminal suspects. In 2010, there were approximately 15 such cases. One 2010 case involved the capture and execution of four policemen in the town of Uncia who reportedly engaged in extortion and extrajudicial killing; another case in that year involve the burial alive of three brothers in the town of Tapacari in connection with a local conflict over property lines. The Human Rights Foundation, in a 2008 press release, made clear that lynchings and other “barbaric actions such as hanging, crucifixion, stoning, live burial, and burning,” which had been committed by mobs in Bolivia in the name of “communal justice,” could not be reasonably be considered legitimate acts of justice, and warned that more and more such mob actions were taking place. Noting that President Evo Morales had “said that disenfranchised groups should employ communal justice” and that he supported “lashing as a