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Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, president of Bolivia from 2002 to 2003, was a free-market reformer and U.S. ally. He fled his country after protests to his plans to route natural gas through neighboring Chile toppled his government in 2003 — an episode known in Bolivia as the “Gas War.” He now faces charges of genocide in Bolivia for allegedly ordering the military to fire on protesters in 2003, killing more than 60 people, as well as a civil lawsuit in the U.S. brought by relatives of those who died. Sánchez de Lozada, now living in the U.S., is being sheltered from extradition back to Bolivia.

The Sánchez de Lozada issue hung heavy over U.S-Bolivian relations. And that was before Edward Snowden.

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In 2007, prosecutors in Bolivia filed charges of genocide against Sánchez de Lozada. The Bolivian penal code includes massacres as part of the legal definition of “genocide.”

In 2011, the Bolivian courts convicted five military officers and two former cabinet members and imposed sentences ranging from three to 15 years. In its 2013 “World Report,” Human Rights Watch called the convictions the “only notable advance” in Bolivia’s efforts to punish human rights violations under previous governments.

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The Obama administration refused to extradite Sánchez de Lozada last year. The Bolivian government has filed a second request for extradition, according to La Razón newspaper.

Beth Stephens, the attorney representing the victims’ families [said,] . . . “What they really want is for them to face is criminal prosecution in Bolivia,” Stephens said. “The United States shouldn’t be a safe haven for those who order violent attacks against unarmed civilians.”

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