Ostreicher Update: A Statement From Sean Penn

We were terribly disappointed to see Jacob Ostreicher's stay in Bolivia extended for even one more minute yesterday, but we are still very hopeful that his time as there is almost over.

As always, we stay in constant contact with Miriam Ostreicher, at the ready to help in any way possible. Miriam asked us to release the following statement from actor/activist Sean Penn, who has done so much to help Jacob:
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Sean Penn wheels Jacob Ostreicher into Bolivian court

In my two brief visits to Bolivia, I have seen a country of rare beauty. Met many of its extraordinary people, and been fascinated by its indigenous culture. I have visited twice with President Morales, and been deeply impressed with his leadership and the soul of his passion to serve the Revolution and Bolivian People. I am proud to call him my friend.

However, there is a cancer attacking at Bolivia's heart. The levels of corruption being exposed  through the investigation supported by the President, and led by Minister Carlos Romero, has incurred despicable attacks on character by associates of the red (including  baseless assertions against Vice Minister Jorge Peres) and ultimately lead to threats upon life. This is creating an existential crisis in Bolivia, and violence against those Bolivians seeking justice is now a real and present threat. But I am not here in a political capacity.

I am here because an American citizen Jacob Ostreicher (a father of five children and grandfather of eleven), and his family are being inhumanely victimized by the red.  Jacob and his family are living a nightmare of human abuse, and this is a moment for me to call on my Bolivian brothers and sisters to lend their courage and compassion on behalf of an man KNOWN BY ALL PARTIES to be innocent of any and ALL insinuations of  wrong-doing who has been made a pawn of the greedy criminality of the red.  He is an innocent man who because of his belief in, and love of Bolivia, has been pillaged, tortured, and denied his most basic human rights. Interpretive Law is being used by the cowardly and the corrupt to deny justice in case of Jacob Ostreicher.

Attorney General Ramiro Guererro is facing an enormous challenge, and I trust his promise that he will move to justice in Jacobs case. An act that would allow resources to focus where so needed for Bolivia, so that Bolivia itself may not suffer as Jacob has.  In doing so,  and I trust he will, attorney General Guererro  may in addition, put at bay the otherwise likely intervention by the Inter American Commission On Human Rights, sparing Bolivia the indignity of intervention, so undeserved by its people or its President.

In an effort to obstruct the investigation of extortion perpetrated by Fernando Rivera and the red, and their implicit ties to imprisoned narco trafficker Maximilian Dorado, judges of the appellate court yesterday, once again used the Ostreicher case to abstract both the existence of the red and its stranglehold on the Bolivian Justice system, and the unequivocal innocence of, and human rights violations against, Jacob Ostreicher.

To be clear, the President of Bolivia is INDEED tasking for justice in this case, but until Jacob is a free man, I must call for international support, as we may find, that any direct Presidential intervention will be used by these corrupt opposition forces to discredit his Presidency as one that undermines the Judiciary. This is a fraudulent tactic and should be cause for grave concern that Bolivia and President Morales may become weakened by this mafia and made vulnerable to its ultimate goals of  coup de'tat.

In respect to the courage of President Morales, and those he has tasked to investigate on behalf of justice, and significantly on behalf of the Bolivian people and American citizen Jacob Ostreicher, I ask the world community to stand in solidarity with Bolivia and, I ask President Morales for the immediate release,exoneration, and safe return of Jacob Ostreicher to his family in the United States.