Government deploys elite forces in Pando amid advance of PCC and Comando Vermelho
Minister Oviedo ordered immediate police intervention in Pando after alleging that the PCC and Comando Vermelho control municipalities bordering Brazil.
Police intervention in Pando against Brazilian organised crime
The Minister of Government, Marco Antonio Oviedo, instructed the Bolivian Police on Thursday 17 September to act immediately in the department of Pando, according to lapatria.bo. The measure responds to the advance of organised crime in municipalities bordering Brazil, where the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho operate.
Oviedo alleged before the Legislative Assembly that "a faction of the PCC is attempting to take control in the municipality of Santa Rosa del Abuná, Pando, on the border with Brazil". In the same area, he stated that the Santa Rosa-Montevideo route "is controlled by Comando Vermelho, which is armed with rifles and demands payments for protection for the passage of merchandise used by our compatriots to survive", according to El Deber.
The minister described the situation as structural and not circumstantial. "It was not born by spontaneous generation; it is not something that was organised on Monday and is causing trouble today. It is a phenomenon in which these narco-terrorist organisations have been penetrating our country, finding places where the law and justice were not pursuing them", Oviedo declared.
The intervention also extends to San Matías and San Ignacio, municipalities in the department of Santa Cruz with high levels of violence. The minister announced that the authorities will be present in both localities next weekend with a new operational plan. "We are going to launch a new modality for combating crime. On the border with Brazil, the deployment of elite officers is being defined because the levels of violence are intolerable", he noted.
Oviedo specified that the order was coordinated with the General Commander of the Police, Adrián Javier Álvarez, and that the instruction to operate immediately in Pando was issued during contact with journalists in La Paz. The minister did not reveal details of the new plan for operational reasons.
Source: Google News BO — Crime