Overview
- A five-day wave of violence that officials reported Monday left nine people dead in the Santa Cruz region, with four victims found at a hacienda, two decapitated bodies discovered by a road, and the killing of a police officer.
- Bolivian authorities say hitmen linked to Brazil’s Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho carried out the attacks while fighting over a corridor used to move cocaine abroad, Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo said.
- The government dispatched about 250 police officers to the border town of San Matías and announced plans for Brazilian police to open offices in Bolivia to strengthen cross-border cooperation against these groups.
- Since President Rodrigo Paz took office in November, officials say security forces have captured or expelled 17 international crime bosses, seized dozens of aircraft and properties, removed nearly 300 tonnes of drugs and destroyed clandestine airstrips.
- Bolivia is the world’s third-largest cocaine producer, a fact that raises stakes for local communities and could push the government to deepen regional law-enforcement ties and accelerate the economic and institutional reforms tied to the IMF program.