Global InformationVilla Tunari massacre information
| Villa Tunari massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of Criminalization of coca in Bolivia | |
  Villa Tunari Villa Tunari massacre (Bolivia) | |
| Location | Villa Tunari, Chapare Province, Bolivia |
| Coordinates | 16°58′S 65°25′W / 16.967°S 65.417°W |
| Date | June 27, 1988 |
| Deaths | 9–12 Bolivian civilians |
| Perpetrators | Rural Mobile Patrol (UMOPAR) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) (allegedly) |
| Motive | Repression of protest |
The Villa Tunari Massacre was a 27 June 1988 mass murder committed by UMOPAR (Rural Patrol Mobile Unit) troops in response to a protest by coca-growing peasants (cocaleros) in the town of Villa Tunari in Chapare Province, Bolivia. The cocalero movement had mobilized since late May 1988 in opposition to coca eradication under Law 1008, then on the verge of becoming law.[1] According to video evidence and a joint church-labor investigative commission, UMOPAR opened fired on unarmed protesters, at least two of whom were fatally shot, and many of whom fled to their deaths over a steep drop into the San Mateo River. The police violence caused the deaths of 9 to 12 civilian protesters, including three whose bodies were never found, and injured over a hundred.[2][3][4] The killings were followed by further state violence in Villa Tunari, Sinahota, Ivirgarzama, and elsewhere in the region, including machine gun fire, beatings, and arrests.
The massacre helped bring about the consolidation of Chapare coca growers' unions into the Coordinadora of the Six Federations of the Tropic of Cochabamba.[1]
Representatives of the National Congress, Catholic Church, Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, and the Central Obrera Boliviana labor federation formed a joint "multisectoral commission" to investigate the repression in the Chapare, which traveled to the region on 30 June 1988.[5]
- ^ a b Gutiérrez Aguilar, Raquel (2008). Los ritmos del Pachakuti: Movimiento y levantamiento indígena-popular en Bolivia. La Paz, Bolivia: Ediciones Yachaywasi : Textos Rebeldes. p. 165.
- ^ Madeline Barbara Léons, Harry Sanabria, ed. (1997). Coca, cocaine, and the Bolivian reality. SUNY Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-7914-3482-6.
- ^ Gomez, Luis (February 28, 2006). "Bolivia's Political Moment, Part II: Contradictions in Response to Viceroy Greenlee". Narco News. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
- ^ "Bolivia: Cocaleros Sign Truce". WEEKLY NEWS UPDATE ON THE AMERICAS. No. 266. NICARAGUA SOLIDARITY NETWORK OF GREATER NEW YORK. October 6, 2002. Archived from the original on July 1, 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2010.
- ^ "Comisión viaja hoy al Chapare". Ultima Hora. 1988-06-30.