BOLIVIA: State institutions infiltrated by drug gangs
Thank you for reading LatinNews' chosen article from the Latin American Weekly Report, produced since 1967. The full report can be accessed here: Latin American Weekly Report - 15 June 2023
Bolivia’s authorities are scrambling to assert their control over the country’s airport security systems, after President Luis Arce’s government acknowledged the complicity of officials in the shipment of nearly half a tonne of cocaine to Spain in February.
The drugs in question were seized back in February, when 484kg of cocaine was found on a flight operated by the state-run airline Boliviana de Aviación (BoA) which had landed in Madrid from Viru Viru international airport, in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. However, the story did not break in Bolivia until early June, when local media reported that the Spanish authorities had alerted their Bolivian counterparts about the drugs bust, but that the issue had allegedly been swept under the carpet.
Amid mounting speculation over the complicity of state officials in the cocaine shipment, Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo held a press conference on 6 June where he acknowledged that airport officials must have been aware of a drugs shipment of this size, and admitted that an “international mafia” has “permeated” several state institutions. Del Castillo was joined at the press conference by the CEO of BoA, Ronald Casso, the president of the national customs authority, Karina Serrudo, and Justice Minister Iván Lima, providing some clues as to which state institutions might have been infiltrated.
With the credibility of Viru Viru airport’s security system in tatters, on 9 June the Santa Cruz police commander, Erick Holguín, announced that all 50 police officers usually deployed to the airport had been rotated to other duties. Two BoA staff have also been arrested in connection with the drugs shipment. On 12 June Del Castillo announced that the government had asked the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to help identify “weak points” in the country’s airport security systems.
The scandal was quickly seized upon by former president Evo Morales (2006-2019), who has previously accused the Arce administration of complicity in drug trafficking as he manoeuvres ahead of a widely anticipated presidential run in 2025. Repeating previous claims that the authorities are “carrying out false [counter-narcotics] operations to protect drug traffickers”, Morales tweeted that “the protection of drug trafficking and corruption is preventing the president from governing,” accusing state officials of using “smokescreens to hide drug shipments”.
Even if the scandal over the so-called ‘narco-flight’ fades over the coming weeks, these attacks on the government by Morales and his allies will intensify in the run-up to the primary elections which are due to be held by the ruling left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) next year. That was evidenced on 13 June when the vice president of the MAS, Gerardo García, declared that Arce has “become the worst enemy” of the party.
Speaking at a press conference alongside other members of the MAS leadership (but not Morales, who is the party’s president), García maintained that the pro-Morales faction in the party had been “betrayed and is being persecuted” for having denounced acts of corruption. “[Arce’s faction] keeps saying that it’s part of the MAS, but it’s acting differently, trying to create its own political structure,” he claimed.
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García announced that there would be a party congress in the city of Cochabamba on 22 June, but said that MAS members who work for the government would not be invited to attend. Whilst he said that this would affect all factions of the party equally and would prevent infighting, it will further sideline Arce by preventing the government from defending itself at the congress.
Government responds to criticism
Responding to the criticism from the MAS’s vice president, Gerardo García, the minister for the presidency, María Nela Prada, said that the “attacks and baseless lies” about President Arce are part of efforts to secure his and Vice President David Choquehuanca’s expulsion from the MAS. Referring to former president Morales, she said that a group within the party “has for some time been poisoning him with lies and intrigue”.
Thank you for reading LatinNews' chosen article from the Latin American Weekly Report, produced since 1967. The full report can be accessed here: Latin American Weekly Report - 15 June 2023
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