FBIS3-50603
"drlat003_l_94003"
FBIS-LAT-94-003
Document Type:Daily Report
5 Jan 1994
Bolivia
Government Minister Interviewed on Fight Against Drugs
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 is related to the intelligence services, which
terrified the people. 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
support Bolivians and 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 once was exclusively linked to
the issue of coca and cocaine. It now has a wider role involving
prevention and interdiction.
Although interdiction had been an important role, 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 a 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 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 arrests. The number one in the country is "Meco"
Dominguez, who was sentenced but later 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.