The headquarters of the Dirección de Orden Político (Directorate of Political Order, DOP) were a torture and detention centre located in the Bolivian capital of La Paz. The secret prison was situated along Comercial Street, between Ayacucho Street and Colón Street. The secret prison operated in the house next to the Bolivian seat of government, known as the Palacio Legislativo (Legislative Palace), on Murillo Square.

The DOP is an institution that the dictator Hugo Banzer had created by decree on 25th January 1972, with the aim of maintaining “political order and public peace, preventing political-criminal activities that may subvert internal security and the stability of the government”. The operational masterminds running the prison were Guido Benavidez Alvizuri, José Abraham Baptista, and different police officers from each of the regional departments of Bolivia.

During the 1970s, hundreds of people found themselves detained in the prison’s facilities for political reasons. They stayed in individual or group cells; however, since the facilities were not designed for such a purpose, prisoners slept in the corridors, as well as outdoors. To add to the inhumane conditions of confinement and torture, prisoners were deprived of food for several days and access to health care.

In one of the prison cells, on 18th May 1972, the young lawyer, Reynaldo Peters wrote a habeas corpus by hand on a metre-long piece of toilet paper, addressed to the President of the Supreme Court of Justice in La Paz. This piece of paper became a fundamental document for the memory of the fight against the dictatorship. In 2015, it was accepted onto the UNESCO International Memory of the World Register.

Many survivors of this torture and detention centre remember, in particular, a space called “cuartito azul” (small blue room). This room without natural light was the space that was used as a cruel torture room.

Towards the beginning of 1977, while Operation Condor was working at full steam, the Bolivian repressive forces were reorganised. The DOP assumes the role of deputy in the running of Operation Condor activities in Bolivia. The organisation took charge of operational tasks such as the infiltration of political organisations and trade unions, kidnapping operations and the management of numerous torture and detention centres. Operation Condor’s activities in Bolivia were directed by the Bolivian Servicio de Inteligencia del Estado (State Intelligence Service); this organism was in charge of exchanging information in the context of the repressive coordination.

An emblematic case of Condor’s repressive operations was that of Luis Faustino Stamponi, an Argentine national who was captured in Bolivia and transferred to several clandestine torture and detention centres in Argentina, where he, eventually, disappears. Stamponi was a militant of the Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores de Bolivia (Bolivian Revolutionary Workers’ Party) and of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army). He was captured in the town of Llallagua on 28th September 1976. He was firstly transferred, while shackled, to the cells of the Achocalla clandestine torture and detention centre, situated in the outskirts of La Paz. Several days later, he was transported to the DOP offices in La Paz. On 15th October that same year, he was handed over to the Argentine police at the border crossing between Villazón (Bolivia) and La Quiaca (Argentina). Luis was then moved on to the “Automotores Orletti” clandestine torture and detention centre, like other Argentine prisoners transferred from Bolivia.

Foreign political militants were detained in the DOP facilities, given the prison’s role in the regional repressive coordination under Operation Condor. According to survivors’ testimonies, some interrogations were carried out by Bolivian agents in cooperation with agents from other member countries of Operation Condor, notably Argentina.

Towards 1980, international pressure and reports led to some of the detainees being released on probation or exiled.

On 17th November 1987, works began to demolish the original building and rebuild a larger version, on the exact same piece of land next to the Congress.