by ELIZA DAVIS
On May 24, Martín Belaunde Lossio, a Peruvian politician and businessman, escaped house arrest in La Paz, Bolivia.[1] Five days later, he was found in a small town about 100 km away from the Brazilian border. Authorities suspect “complicity” involving the police officers that were guarding his house in La Paz.[2] The Bolivian police force, the Policía Nacional de Bolivia, had first arrested Belaunde in January when he fled from Peru to the landlocked nation, after seeking asylum from corruption charges; however, the Bolivian government chose to honor a request from Lima to have him arrested and extradited, rather than granting immunity.[3]
This case has brought international attention to the endemic problem of police corruption in Bolivia, prompting swift action by Bolivian President Evo Morales. In May, shortly after Belaunde’s escape, Morales stated, “Some groups within our institutions, such as the police, are creating a bad image of Bolivia.”[4] His comments were backed by decisive action, as he proceeded to fire the police chief, his interior minister, the police officers guarding Belaunde’s house, and dozens of others suspected of involvement.[5] Furthermore, Morales has promised to take steps to write new laws to tackle corruption in the police force before the end of the year.[6]
While Morales’ expeditious action under the circumstances has been notable, international critics around the world looked beyond this individual case and expressed concerns for the role played by an incompetent police force unable to deal with cocaine trafficking in Bolivia. In recent years, Bolivian traffickers and coca growers have experienced mounting pressure to participate in the drug industry, and the government’s efforts to combat that participation have been only marginally successful. On the one hand, Bolivia has made enormous leaps in data collection, using satellites for agrarian census reports and creating a registry for coca growers; further the UN Crop Monitoring Reports show a steady reduction of coca cultivation in Bolivia since 2010.[7] On the other, in 2013 over half of the coca produced did not go through the legal market, and almost 90 percent from the Chapare, a small coca-growing region that has the most involvement in drug trafficking, was passed to the illicit market.[8] Even though police corruption is extensive, fixing it may not be the solution Morales is looking for. Stricter laws, including harsher punishments, to tackle police corruption are certainly necessary, but this initiative may not offer the complete overhaul that Bolivia’s police force and country as a whole need to combat further difficulties with the drug trade and other forms of transnational crime.
Coca Eradication and Community Control
When Evo Morales, a former cocalero (coca grower), became president in 2006, he initiated a highly visible campaign to abolish illicit coca sale through the formalization of the “cato” program, a policy first created by his predecessor, President Carlos Mesa (2003-2005).[9] Acutely aware of the integral role coca farming plays in local economies and the importance that the plant has had in Bolivian history, the policy allows farmers to grow a subsistence amount—the amount that it takes to make a living on—of the coca leaf on plots ranging from 1,600 to 2,500 square meters.[10] According to the Andean Information Network, an independent news organization based in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the policy focuses on the supply side of coca-growing, pivoting on an “emphasis on community participation and respect for human rights.”[11] Under the policy, the community is required to police themselves, ensuring that individuals do not grow too much coca.[12]
Council on Hemispheric Affairs for more