Police Mutiny In Bolivia

A police officer holds a picture of President Evo Morales. Photo: Reuters

Bolivia Deploys Army To Patrol Streets As Police Strike -- BBC

The Bolivian government has deployed the army to patrol the streets as police across the country continue to strike in protest at low pay.

The protests turned violent on Thursday when officers seized control of a police barracks in the city of La Paz.

Communications Minister Amanda Davila said striking officers had been "setting the scene for a coup".

Talks between the government and striking officers stalled early on Saturday with no agreement in sight.

Read more ....

More News On Bolivia's Police Mutiny

Bolivian police mutiny over pay, other issues -- CNN
Army patrolling Bolivia's streets amid police mutiny -- FOX News/EFE
Bolivian officials, striking police plan new talks over pay -- France 24/AFP
Bolivian police mutiny over pay widens -- Washington Post/AP
Bolivian police mutineers stick to demands -- Al Jazeera
Bolivian police stage mutiny over low wages -- Sydney Morning Herald
'Coup likely' as Bolivian police make demands to government -- Deutsche Welle
This Crazy Footage From Bolivia Shows Striking Police Officers Trashing Everything -- Business Insider

Bolivia Moves To Legalize Coca Production

Saturnino Mamani, with his son beside him, stands in his coca fields in Los Yungas. Photograph: Andrés Schipani/Guardian Weekly

Bolivian Leader Moves To Legalize Small Coca Plots -- ABC News

LA PAZ, Bolivia - President Evo Morales said Saturday that he plans to make it legal for Bolivia's farmers to grow small parcels of coca plants. Morales, who also heads a coca growers association, said he wants to permit individual farmers to cultivate coca plots of 40 meters by 40 meters (130 feet by 130 feet). Coca leaf is the key ingredient of cocaine.

The president predicted the measure will be enacted, noting he won re-election Dec. 6 with 64 percent of the vote and commands a strong majority in the national legislature.

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My Comment: The Bolivian Government is laying the groundwork to officially become a narco producing state. The outcome of such legislation will be a major increase in the production of coca leaves, with the hope (and intent) that small farmers can earn extra revenues from growing this crop. But if history is any indication, this policy will result in disaster for Bolivia within one generation.

Every country that has either turned a blind eye to narcotics and/or legalized the production of narcotics eventually ended up with a major narcotics problem. Colombia, Mexico, and Peru are South America's stellar examples of this policy, but countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan are also examples of what happens when the production of narcotics is permitted. In Afghanistan .... aside from the war .... opium addiction plagues a sizable percentage of the population, bringing with it all of the social and medical problems associated with this type of addiction. The poppy crops may bring a small income to the Afghan farmers who grow it, but the political, medical, social, and economic hardships that it brings makes the entire enterprise (and policy) a tragedy that approaches biblical proportions.

For Bolivia .... by decriminalizing the production of small coca crops .... we will not have to wait long for the eventual increase in the production of cocaine and the criminal enterprises that are dependent on it. And I predict .... that within one generation .... cocaine and the violence that it ALWAYS spawns will become Bolivia's #1 social, political, and health problem.

Is Biolivia Becoming The World's First Government Sanctioned Narco State?

Image from The Wall Street Journal

Drug Lords Finding Safe Haven In Bolivia -- Washington Times

SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia | Narco-trafficking cartels are migrating to the Andes region in Bolivia, where a diminished U.S. presence has allowed a boom in cocaine production and the opening of new drug routes, regional anti-drug officials say.

Recent studies by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime show a steep rise in cocaine production in Bolivia and a smaller increase in Peru. They also show a drop in Colombian cocaine output, which is subject to increased anti-drug efforts by the U.S. and Colombian governments.

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My Comment: Every Latin American state that permitted or turned a blind eye to the growth and development of narco groups and cartels has always ended up with violence, corruption, and a disintegration of the legal authority of the Government.

I guess Morales of Bolivia wants to follow these same footsteps.

For more information, the Foreign Policy/Passport blog has an excellent excellent story on the growth of cocaine and its acceptance in Bolivia here.

Another good article is from the Wall Street Journal ..... Bolivia Plants Coca, and Cocaine Follows

Bolivia Plants Coca, And Cocaine Follows

A Bolivian farmer weeding his coca plantation. Bolivian coca production has grown 20% in acreage since President Evo Morales took office in 2006. Agence France Presse/Getty Images

From The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Says Drug Trade Is Booming as Morales's Plan to Encourage Legal Products From Leaves Backfires.

When Evo Morales, a former coca farmer, became president of Bolivia in 2006, he promised to restore the thumb-shaped green leaf to the place of respect it enjoyed in Inca times. Farmers could legally grow more of it, and his government would build factories to churn out coca shampoo and toothpaste. He would fight drugs under a policy of "zero cocaine, but not zero coca."

Now Bolivia's coca production is up, according to the United Nations -- but so is its cocaine trade. Cocaine production is potentially up as much as 65%, U.S. law-enforcement officials say, as Colombian and Mexican traffickers have set up shop in the country. Bolivia's neighbors complain they are being hammered by the cocaine flooding across its borders.

"Bolivia has become the point of least resistance to the drug trade," says Eduardo Gamarra, a political scientist at Florida International University.

Read more ....

My Comment: Like Peru .... all the trends in the cocaine and drug trade are going down a wrong direction.

Investigation Into The Assassination Plot Against Bolivian President Evo Morales Continues

Evo Morales

Bolivia Aims To Untangle Plot To Kill Morales -- Reuters

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia launched an investigation on Friday into a suspected militant group that police say was plotting to kill President Evo Morales, but the opposition slammed the probe as an "international show."

Three suspected mercenaries were killed in a shootout on Thursday in the anti-Morales stronghold of Santa Cruz after police moved to arrest a gang that officials say traveled from Ireland or Croatia to kill leading public figures in the Andean nation.

Read more ....

More News On The Assassination Plot Against Bolivian President Morales

Irishman killed after 'plot to assassinate Bolivian president' -- Times Online
Group behind plot to kill Bolivian pres a mystery -- AP
A Plot to Kill Bolivia's Leftist President? -- Time Magazine
Family member confirms the identity of man killed in Bolivia -- Irish Times
Bizarre details emerge in Bolivian plot -- Reuters
'Irishman' killed 'for attempted assassination' on Evo Morales -- The Telegraph

Bolivians Back New, Pro-Indigenous Constitution

Bolivian President Morales (Photo from De Welt)

Form Newsweek:

Bolivians approve constitution granting indigenous majority more power, Morales re-election.

(LA PAZ, Bolivia) Bolivian voters embraced a new constitution Sunday that promises more power for the long-suffering indigenous majority and grants leftist President Evo Morales a shot at remaining in office through 2014.

The charter passed easily in a country where many can still recall when Indians were forbidden to vote. But its sometimes vague wording and resistance from Bolivia's mestizo and European-descended minority foreshadows more political turmoil in an Andean nation polarized by race and class.

Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, says the charter will "decolonize" South America's poorest country by recovering indigenous values lost under centuries of oppression dating back to the Spanish conquest.

Read more ....

Update: Bolivians back new, pro-indigenous constitution -- Yahoo News/AP

My Comment: It appears that the vote in Bolivia broke down according to ethnic and provincial boundaries. The mainly white eastern provinces with much of the nation's wealth voted no, the rest voted yes.

There will be no peace from this vote. With gas and energy prices collapsing, and metal/mining projects on hold due to nationalization and low prices, the Bolivian Government headed by Morales is heading for tough times.