Five Bolivian soldiers were burned alive inside a car by a criminal organization that operates on the border between Bolivia and Argentina, according to the authorities of the Andean country. Army second lieutenants Yamil Argani and José María Romero, and sergeants Braulio Pacaje, Vladimir Pacasi and Ruddy Medoza were murdered near Villamontes, in the south of Bolivia and 90 kilometers from Argentina, while they were carrying out the mission assigned to the Armed Forces to control smuggling and drug trafficking in the very wide and often deserted Bolivian borders. They joined the 16 troops who died in 2023 carrying out this same task.
The deaths of the five soldiers shocked the country due to their particular cruelty. According to a police source, the van in which they were traveling was chasing a vehicle loaded with illegal chemicals. She was then pushed off the road and overturned. Taking advantage of the men's confusion due to the impact they suffered, their attackers took their weapons, poured gasoline on them and set them on fire. Then they left, but leaving bottles of gasoline behind. Later, one of them bragged about the crime, which was recorded in one of the several audios that, for a reason not yet determined, ended up on social networks and reached police ears. “These thugs make people cry so much, they are burning like the dogs they are,” is heard in one of these recordings, which were reproduced by the media.
Initially it was thought that the fire had been caused by a traffic accident, but the Vice Minister of Fight against Smuggling, Daniel Vargas, ruled out this version and denounced that what happened was a crime. Vargas reported the mobilization of military intelligence groups to find those responsible for “this atrocity.”
The case was revealed when the atmosphere is full of concern about the situation that Ecuador is experiencing due to the overwhelming attack of drug trafficking. According to the opposition, Bolivia has similar economic, social and institutional vulnerabilities as this country, and the Government of Luis Arce is not taking the necessary measures to prevent drug traffickers from taking over public institutions, particularly the police and prisons. nor establish zones freed from State control, such as those created on the borders by the most fearsome smuggling organizations. These organizations are armed and, intermittently, respond with fire and death to military brigades that try to stop convoys with contraband merchandise, which sometimes includes the chemical precursors required for the manufacture of cocaine.
According to the Government, however, the Bolivian situation is far from being similar to that of Ecuador, since the large international mafias are not present in the country, although some of their members may live there temporarily.
Bolivia is the third largest producer of cocaine in the world, behind Colombia and Peru. According to an estimate by United States authorities, in 2021 it placed just over 300 tons of the narcotic on the markets. Last year, the country recognized that it no longer only produces the “base paste” of the drug, but also the hydrochloride or refined cocaine. It is feared that this fact means that the drug cartels have already landed in Bolivia. A week ago, the Government made one of the largest seizures in history, stopping 8.7 tons of cocaine that were traveling to Chile to be transferred from there to the Netherlands. And one of the most important news of the year 2023 was the spectacular escape from the country of Sebastián Marset, considered by the authorities a “world-class drug trafficker”, who outwitted the police and violated national borders, apparently to take refuge in Paraguay.
Of the criticisms that President Arce receives for the growth of drug trafficking, the most acidic are those of his former colleague Evo Morales, who constantly harasses the Government as a “collaborator” of drug trafficking. Regarding what happened with the military, Morales posted in Other opposition leaders have asked for the same. Businessman Samuel Doria Medina wrote on the same network that “the Government must rigorously repress the perpetrators of this crime to prevent drug traffickers from taking over the country in the long run.”
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