The United States wasn't too happy about being kicked out of Bolivia in 2008, as it has now apparently taken to undermining President Evo Morales by secretly indicting top officials for alleged cocaine trafficking, reports The Huffington Post.
The sealed indictments against the Bolivian officials are part of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting called "Operation Naked King" and were revealed last week in a lawsuit filed by former DEA informant Carlos Toro.
Targeted in the indictments are Walter Álvarez, a top Bolivian air force official; the now-deceased Raul García, father of Vice President Álvaro García Linera; Faustino Giménez, an Argentine citizen and Bolivian resident who is reportedly close to the vice president; and Katy Alcoreza, an alleged intelligence agent for Morales, according to HuffPo.
Morales, once a coca farmer and head of the country's coca growers union, has long been a staunch opponent of the U.S. government and continues to defend coca production as a traditional right. He expelled the DEA from Bolivia in 2008, arguing it was encouraging drug trafficking and disrespecting the Bolivian police and armed forces. He also accused the DEA of bribing police officers, violating human rights, covering up murders and destroying bridges and roads, according to Raw Story.
Since then, Morales has been carrying out his own policy to combat trafficking of cocaine, which is made primarily with coca leaves. He has acknowledged the traditional uses of the coca plant and allowed for some continued production while encouraging coca growers to substitute for other crops like pineapples and bananas. People in the region have used the plant for thousands of years for various medical, nutritional and religious reasons.
Morales' plan has worked too, according to a United Nations report, which said that Bolivia's coca cultivation fell 11 percent in 2014 over the previous year. The amount of land being used for coca production is at the lowest point since U.N. surveys began in 2003, and the amount of land used for coca cultivation is down by one third since 2010.
Last year, Morales accused the U.S. of using its War on Drugs as a way to pressure and control governments in Latin America, saying the U.S. government "uses its War on Drugs to pursue its own geo-political agenda and now they use it to accuse other governments and take them down," as HNGN previously reported. "They even named me the 'Andinean Bin Laden' and accused us of being terrorists and drug traffickers and at the same United States is the top nation that backs and benefits from drug trafficking."
The State Department, Department of Justice and DEA declined to comment on the HuffPo story, but the media outlet notes that previous media reports in the region have accused top Bolivian officials of cocaine trafficking. Two former anti-drug officials in the Morales administration have also been arrested for drug trafficking - Rene Sanabria and Oscar Nina,as BBC reported.
On Monday, the Obama administration said it plans to formally decertify Bolivia because it has failed to adhere to obligations laid out in international counternarcotics agreements. The announcement amounts to little more than an official accusation, according to HuffPo.
Bolivia is the world's third-largest producer of cocaine, after Peru and Colombia.
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