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<\/p>\nIn a decision published on 11 December, Bolivia recognises the “free union” between two people of the same sex – for the first time in the country’s history.<\/p>\n
In a decision published on Friday, the Servicio de Registro C\u00edvico (SERECI, Civil Registry) announced it would “provide for the registration of the free union between David Victor Aruquipa Perez and Guido Alvaro Monta\u00f1o Duran”. This reverses an earlier decision by the authority in 2018. At that time, the authority had rejected the couple’s application to register their partnership, which has now lasted more than 11 years.<\/p>\n
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It has been 12 years since 48-year-old business economist David V\u00edctor Aruquipa P\u00e9rez and 45-year-old lawyer Guido Alvaro Monta\u00f1o Dur\u00e1n first met. Both worked in an educational institution in La Paz, a city in the high plateau of the Andes in Bolivia. David and Guido became best friends fairly quickly, but they would never have dared to dream that they would one day become lovers, let alone go down in history as the first homosexual couple whose civil partnership was legally recognised by the Bolivian state.<\/p>\n
After a few months of intimate friendship, David and Guido suddenly realised that there was something more – that they were in love with each other. From then on, Aruquipa P\u00e9rez and Monta\u00f1o Dur\u00e1n had a formal relationship, telling their families and friends. At some point, the need arose to officially seal the love they felt for each other – not out of a need for acceptance, but so as not to live in a relationship of false appearances, as El T\u00e9legrafo quotes the two of them.<\/p>\n
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What followed was a years-long legal battle for the recognition of their marriage-like civil partnership. The Bolivian authorities had initially argued that Bolivian law did not provide for same-sex partnerships. According to Article 63 of the constitution, marriage is limited to the union between a woman and a man, SERECI ruled in 2018.<\/p>\n
It was only before the Constitutional Court that the couple was proven right. In their ruling, the judges of the Constitutional Court referred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR). The latter had declared in 2017 that “it is the duty of states to recognise the family ties of people of the same sex and to protect them”.<\/p>\n