FBIS3-60065 "jptdd002__l94008"
JPRS-TDD-94-002-L Document Type:JPRS Document Title:Narcotics 11 January 1994
LATIN AMERICA BOLIVIA

Government Minister Interviewed on Battle Against Drug Trafficking

PY0401192394 La Paz PRESENCIA in Spanish 22 Dec 93 p 7 PY0401192394 La Paz PRESENCIA Language: Spanish Article Type:BFN [Interview with Government Minister German Quiroga by Mario Canipa Vargas in La Paz--no date given] [Excerpts] Canipa: The government has been making changes since its inauguration last August. It is insisting on making changes. What are the changes made in your ministry? Quiroga: There are three basic aspects we want to change in the transition from the old Interior Ministry to the new Government Ministry. The first one is related to the intelligence services, which terrified the people in the past. This was the part of the state that investigated the possibility of a coup, of sedition. But we now believe that under a modern and established democracy like ours, these services must contribute to people's security, and along with its basic organization--which is the police--should be the support of the Bolivian people to give them daily security. We are working on it. The first step taken is to institutionalize the intelligence services and put them in the hands of the police in order to prevent them from becoming an instrument of the political power that happens to be in charge of the Government Ministry. Canipa: Is there no longer a Government Ministry intelligence service? Quiroga: There is an intelligence service in the Government Ministry that depends on the police, and all its members are part of the Bolivian police. This is closely linked to the changes in the police as part of the first aspect. [passage omitted] Canipa: What will happen with the struggle against drug trafficking? Will it be included in these changes? Quiroga: Of course. To start with we have changed the Social Defense Secretariat, which in the past was exclusively linked to the issue of coca and cocaine. It now has a wider role involving prevention and interdiction. Although interdiction was an important role in the past, we believe alternative development is also an essential issue. It will not be possible to achieve an adequate replacement for surplus coca production if we are not able to find an economic solution. The only way that an individual who grows coca stops doing it is when he realizes that growing another product is more profitable than growing coca from the economic point of view. This is what we are working on. We have taken control of the fund for alternative development by changing its structure. We created an executive board presided over by a delegate of the president of the Republic, and its responsibility is shared by the executive branch and coca producers. We would like to see the executive board create the ideas to carry out alternative development. Eradication will be linked to alternative development. In those places where eradication is being carried out there will be alternative development, and where alternative development took place it was because there was a reduction in coca growing. But I am not saying that we will eliminate interdiction. We will continue the work being carried out in the country but interdiction will be exclusively against drug traffickers, not against coca growers or people involved in the legal commercialization of coca. We have a Special Antinarcotics Force [FELCN] that is an example for Latin America, and we will continue to support it because we believe that interdiction is essential. We also will carry out prevention as an overall part of our strategy, and this is why we created the Social Prevention Under Secretariat, which will deal with alcoholism, drug addiction, and crimes. This organization will help try to prevent these evils in society through teaching programs. Canipa: To talk about successful and real alternative development, not just in speeches the way it is now, means talking about resources. How will you finance the alternative development projects to become a reality? Quiroga: We are talking about three basic sources of financing. The first is the resource that drug trafficking itself produces. The country has many resources from drug trafficking that are lost with time. We are talking about a great deal of money, many assets that have been disappearing. The one responsible was first the Interior Ministry; later it was a shared responsibility between prosecutors and the Interior Ministry. Now it is the responsibility of prosecutors and the judges who hand over the assets to trustees who later disappear. We will propose that the legislative branch change the law to be able to immediately auction confiscated assets to create a common fund to support the people found innocent after their assets were confiscated. With this fund we hope to finance 30 to 35 percent of the alternative development programs. The second resource will be multinational organizations. The United Nations and the Inter-American Development Bank are interested in carrying out alternative development programs under the concept that the only way to do it adequately is through the industrialization of the areas where surplus coca is grown. The third financing resource is the United States with bilateral aid. That country gave about $20 million to $25 million annually for alternative development but a large part of those resources were used to pay salaries and not necessarily to carry out alternative development. With these three resources, which are not from the national Treasury, in addition to some funds from the national budget, we believe we can carry out a good alternative development policy. Canipa: Regarding interdiction, there has been a great deal of talk about the presence of Colombian drug traffickers in Bolivia. Is that true? Quiroga: We have information about new technology. The technology used in the country is different from that used by the Medellin and Cali cartels. But in the last two years we have seen that the technology to produce coca and cocaine in the country has quickly improved. And this makes the narcotics intelligence organizations think there is permanent and decisive cooperation by the Colombian drug cartels. Another aspect is that probably 80 percent of the drug produced in the country goes to Colombia. Whether it goes to Paraguay, Argentina, or Brazil, its final destination is Colombia, where the last stage of purification is made before it is sent to the United States. Perhaps this is the most important reason to continue with interdiction, to prevent Colombian drug traffickers from establishing themselves in our country. Canipa: Does this represent a threat of violence ...? Quiroga: Without any doubt, this may represent violence because the mafia is violent and we will not send nuns from a convent to fight against them. We must send outstanding officers against them because this is a war, a war in which the government, the police, have to fulfill the laws when the other side violates them. Drug traffickers violate sovereignty, hurt the population by threatening them, and they also murder with impunity. It is an unjust struggle because one side has laws and regulations to fulfill while the other side has absolutely no restrictions. Canipa: Do you have a list of the main drug traffickers in the country? Who heads the list? Quiroga: We have a permanent list that undergoes changes based on the arrests made. The number one in the country is "Meco" Dominguez who received a sentence and has escaped; he is at large. There is also a list of nine individuals who are a number one priority for FELCN. Only two months ago the number one on that list was "Nando" Gutierrez, who was captured. As you can see it is a list that changes periodically. We have a FELCN that is very efficient but the DEA's cooperation in this work must be recognized.