Four decades of Huanchaca: Bolivia faces transnational and violent drug trafficking
Forty years after the triple murder that exposed drug trafficking in Bolivia, the country faces contract killing, territorial disputes and the risk of becoming a narco-state, according to experts.
Bolivia, four decades after Huanchaca: decentralised drug trafficking and threat of narco-state
Forty years ago, the massacre on the Caparuch plateau revealed that Bolivia harboured a structure capable of installing a cocaine factory deep in the jungle, operating a clandestine airstrip and eliminating anyone who got too close. Today, according to El Deber, the challenge is considerably more complex: decentralised networks of production, transit, storage, money laundering and territorial dispute define the new scenario.
In 1986, naturalist Noel Kempff Mercado, pilot Juan Cochamanidis and guide Franklin Parada were murdered in Caparuch, where a cocaine factory was operating. Two Brazilians were convicted, but the owners of the operation and the masterminds were never identified. Two months later, deputy Edmundo Salazar Terceros, who was investigating the massacre, was gunned down with no one held responsible for the crime.
Four decades later, Bolivia demonstrates greater anti-drug operational capacity. Government Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo reported 7,546 operations, 2,187 arrests, 16.29 tonnes of cocaine seized and 446 factories destroyed. However, the criminal scenario is also more sophisticated.
Henry Oporto, director of the Milenio Foundation, argues that Bolivia moved from producing coca leaf and cocaine paste to occupying a higher link in the chain: the processing and manufacture of cocaine, as well as becoming a route for international trafficking. To this must be added smuggling, illegal mining and money laundering. Oporto attributes this shift to state weakness, limited territorial control and the infiltration of institutions by criminal groups. The penetration of the Police and the Justice system, combined with permeable borders, has eroded combat capacity.
Santa Cruz occupies a central place on this map due to its borders with Brazil and Paraguay. The city became a refuge for drug traffickers, according to the Milenio Foundation director. The case of Sebastián Marset illustrated organised crime's capacity to deploy security, property and air logistics. Following Marset's capture, Vice-Minister Ernesto Justiniano warned: "If one Marset is caught, probably nine others are in the making."
The Police are investigating an active territorial dispute, with confirmed presence of Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho. By 3 September, 46 deaths had been counted in 37 attacks with characteristics of executions or contract killings. Not all can be directly attributed to drug trafficking, but several respond to hypotheses of settling scores and clashes between organisations.
For criminal law specialist and former prosecutor Joadel Bravo, this violence marks the difference from the past. "In 1986, Bolivia discovered it had drug trafficking; 40 years later, the challenge is to prevent drug trafficking from becoming a parallel structure of economic, territorial and institutional power, which constitutes a paved path for Bolivia to become a narco-state," Bravo stated. The central threat, in his analysis, is that this criminality consolidates a parallel power capable of competing with the State.
The question that Huanchaca left behind—who was behind the business and who was protecting it—remains unanswered four decades later. The challenge remains the same: reaching the money, the protection networks and those responsible who remain hidden behind the criminal structure.
Source: El Deber