La Paz (AFP) – Bolivia and the United States have resumed joint anti-drug trafficking investigations, the South American country’s drugs czar Ernesto Justiniano told AFP on Wednesday. Cooperation was halted in 2008 amid a diplomatic spat, however recently elected center-right President Rodrigo Paz has sought closer ties with the United States.
“There is joint work, joint investigations (with the US Drug Enforcement Agency),” said Justiniano, deputy minister for Social Defense and the official in charge of the country’s anti-drug policy. “We are investigating with the DEA, we are exchanging information.” Bolivia is the world’s third-largest producer of cocaine, after Colombia and Peru.
Paz came to power in November after nearly 20 years of socialist governments. He has radically shifted Bolivia’s foreign policy, seeking greater economic and security cooperation with US President Donald Trump’s administration.
“We are truly working in a sustained way, almost daily, on information exchange,” Justiniano said. “Now it’s different. There really is an exchange.” Justiano said that cooperation went beyond information sharing. The DEA is supporting the Bolivian government as it conducts “reliability” screens on anti-narcotics officers using polygraph lie detectors. Some 250 officers have undergone these tests, Justiniano said.
Bolivia joined the US security initiative known as Shield of the Americas in March. Days later, Bolivian police — working in cooperation with US intelligence — made the high-profile arrest of Sebastian Marset in the city of Santa Cruz. Marset, a Uruguayan national, was one of the most wanted criminals on the continent. He was handed to DEA agents, who flew him to the United States, where he will stand trial.
The anti-drugs czar also stressed that he is coordinating with Brazilian police to confront armed gangs — like Brazil’s Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital — operating in eastern Bolivia.
© 2024 AFP
