Global InformationUMOPAR information
The Unidad Móvil Policial para Áreas Rurales (UMOPAR), (English: Mobile Police Unit for Rural Areas), was created in 1984 as a unit with within the Bolivian National Police (Cuerpo de Policía Nacional). it is a Bolivian counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency force[1] which was founded by, and is funded, advised, equipped, and trained by the United States government as part of its "War on Drugs".[2][3] It was made a subsidiary of the new Special Antinarcotics Force (Fuerza Especial de Lucha Contra el Narcotráfico—FELCN), when the latter was created in 1987.
There have been complaints that UMOPAR, which is effectively controlled by the United States military and Drug Enforcement Administration,[4] was the most powerfully armed and best trained military force in Bolivia.[5] In 1984, UMOPAR troops kidnapped the President of Bolivia, Siles Zuazo,[6] and staged an unsuccessful coup attempt against the Bolivian government.[5][7]
Bolivian government cooperation with the United States was ended by President Evo Morales. Morales suspended cooperation during the 2008 political crisis, alleging that the US was supporting the opposition.[8] DEA agents were expelled in 2009.[8]
- ^ Lee, Rensselaer W. (1991). The White Labyrinth: Cocaine and Political Power. Transaction Publishers. p. 219. ISBN 978-1-56000-565-0. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
- ^ Rex A. Hudson, Dennis M. Hanratty, ed. (1989). Bolivia: A Country Study. Washington, D.C.: GPO for the Library of Congress.
- ^ "Human Rights Watch World Report 1997 – Bolivia". Human Rights Watch World Report 1997. Human Rights Watch. 1 January 1997. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
painter-bolivia-and-coca-81was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Youngers, Coletta (September 18, 1991). "A Fundamentally Flawed Strategy: The U.S. "War on Drugs" in Bolivia". Washington Office on Latin America. Archived from the original on 27 January 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
- ^ Dunkerley, James (1992). Political suicide in Latin America and other essays. Verso. p. 204. ISBN 978-0-86091-560-7.
- ^ Marcy, William L. (2010). The Politics of Cocaine: How U.S. Foreign Policy Has Created a Thriving Drug Industry in Central and South America. Chicago Review Press. p. 75. ISBN 9781556529498. Retrieved 2010-02-08.
- ^ a b Stippel, Jörg Alfred; Serrano-Moreno, Juan E. (2020-11-01). "The coca diplomacy as the end of the war on drugs. The impact of international cooperation on the crime policy of the Plurinational state of Bolivia". Crime, Law and Social Change. 74 (4): 374. doi:10.1007/s10611-020-09891-5. ISSN 1573-0751. S2CID 254415375. Retrieved 2023-03-09.