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Venezuela as a cocaine producer? Oh, PLEASE. Evo exporting cocaine to the U.S.? It would take more time to straighten that crap out than it would to learn it correctly in the first place. Speaking of Bolivia, and cocaine, the cocaine criminals in the Bolivian Presidency were RIGHT-WINGERS. Here's info. published last year, regarding German Nazi, and WAR CRIMINAL, who relocated to Bolivia after WWII, with full knowledge by the U.S. : In Pursuit of Bolivia's Secret Nazi
Wednesday September 10th 2008
For decades here in Bolivia we had an infamous tradition of ruthless dictators. In the early 70s General Hugo Banzer siezed power. He turned to the ex-Nazi Klaus Barbie to help him with the repression. It was not the first time that Barbie, a war criminal wanted by the French and German authorities, had mingled with hardliners. Here in Bolivia he used to do big business with the drug lords. He had his own team of assassins, some from Italy and others from Argentina, called the Grooms of Death. He also sold them weapons.
American intelligence officials helped Barbie to become established in Bolivia as part of their crusade against communism. He acted as a sort of counter-intelligence official. Under the alias of Klaus Altmann he worked primarily as an interrogator and torturer. He also helped in the same way in Peru. He did the same things here as in Germany and France. For him the word communist meant "dead". Many Bolivians died during that dictatorship; one that was prolonged for more than 10 years. Barbie was in charge of the murders of many Bolivian citizens, including priests and members of the opposition.
So some of us felt that we had to do something about it. But in 1980, after General Banzer, an even bloodier dictator, Luis García Meza, rose to power in what was called the narco, or cocaine, coup. Barbie was a key aide then. He was the main ideologue of that coup; he organised absolutely everything. He was even given the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Bolivian armed forces, and was then able to move around with total impunity. Today Bolivians know all about Barbie, but for a long time many even doubted that such a criminal could be here.
I was kind of obsessed with Barbie since the beginning. In the 70s, when I was in Chile with the Marxist Régis Debray and the Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, we masterminded a plan to kidnap Barbie. But we failed. Back then I was a simple leftist journalist, who was on very bad terms with the dictators’ regimes – I knew that if I stayed I would be killed. I was in Chile until General Pinochet took over, then in Argentina until the junta took over, and finally in Cuba, until Bolivia’s return to democracy in 1982 under Hernán Siles Suazo.
One day, after my return to a democratic Bolivia, I received a phone call from the president himself asking me to "take care of" Barbie. That same day I was named deputy minister of the interior with one objective: to hand over Barbie to the French authorities within 24 hours. French president François Mitterrand, with the advice of Régis Debray, who was his aide , agreed that Barbie should be tried in France.
And I did so. I accomplished my mission: we actually got him for tax evasion. I went personally to take him from San Pedro prison in La Paz to the airport where we sent him to French Guiana, and then he was sent to Lyon for trial. When I got hold of him he was very reluctant to talk. But once we were at the airstrip, about to enter the plane, he asked me: "Where are you taking me?" He seemed to think we were taking him to another military outpost where he could meet some of his old friends, or perhaps back to Germany. When I told him he was going to Lyon he said: "It cannot be."
At this point I said to him: "Yes, you are going back there. Do you remember the French adage which says that a criminal always returns to the scene of the crime? Don’t you remember sending 600,000 Jews to concentration camps and gas chambers? As you personally killed so many in Lyon, you are going back there." "But," he said, "in war there are winners and losers." "So you lost," I said. "It is time to pay."
I was as afraid – as any other mortal would be – of retaliation from the many radical factions linked to Barbie in Bolivia. It was the same in France, where I was the only Bolivian witness during the trial and the supporters of Jean-Marie Le Pen, who sympathise with the Nazis, were after my tail. But the risk was worth taking. A man from the left, like me, cannot be afraid of the right. If I had to be killed, then so be it. But the Barbie issue was beyond ideologies: I knew that what I was doing was the right thing. He was a criminal for the whole of humankind and had to be condemned. http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=719&catID=9~~~~~~~~~~~Here's really GREAT information on cocaine in South America, etc., including Honduras: Dark Side of Rev. Moon (Cont.): Drug Allies
(Posted in 1997)
By Robert Parry
~snip~
South American Drugs
Meanwhile, after World War II, South America was becoming a crossroads for Nazi fugitives and drug smugglers. Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, the so-called Butcher of Lyons, earned his living in Bolivia by selling his intelligence skills, while other ex-Nazis trafficked in narcotics. Often the lines crossed.
In those years, Auguste Ricord, a French war criminal who had collaborated with the Gestapo, set up shop in Paraguay. Ricord opened up French Connection heroin channels to American Mafia drug kingpin Santo Trafficante Jr., who controlled much of the heroin traffic into the United States. Columns by Jack Anderson identified, Ricord's accomplices as some of Paraguay's highest-ranking officers.
Another French Connection mobster, Christian David, relied on protection of Argentine authorities. While trafficking in heroin, David also "took on assignments for Argentina's terrorist organization, the Argentine Anti-Communist Alliance," Henrik Kruger wrote in The Great Heroin Coup. During President Nixon's "war on drugs," U.S. authorities smashed this famous French Connection and won extraditions of Ricord and David in 1972.
But by then, powerful drug lords had forged strong ties to South America's military leaders. Other Trafficante-connected groups, including right-wing anti-Castro Cubans in Miami, eagerly filled the drug void. Heroin from the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia quickly replaced the French Connection heroin that had come mostly from the Middle East.
During this period, the CIA actively collaborated with right-wing army officers to oust left-leaning governments. And amid this swirl of anti-communism, Moon became active in South America. His first visit to Argentina was in 1965 when he blessed a square behind the presidential Pink House in Buenos Aires. He returned a decade later and began making high-level contacts in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.
The far-right gained control of Argentina in 1976 with a Dirty War that "disappeared" tens of thousands of Argentines. Michael Levine, a star undercover agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, was assigned to Buenos Aires and was struck how "death was very much a way of life in Argentina."
A Nazi Reunion
In nearby coca-producing Bolivia, Nazi fugitive Klaus Barbie was working as a Bolivian intelligence officer and drawing up plans for a putsch that would add that central nation to the region's "stable axis" of right-wing regimes. Barbie contacted Argentine intelligence for help.
One of the first Argentine intelligence officers who arrived was Lt. Alfred Mario Mingolla. "Before our departure, we received a dossier on ," Mingolla later told German investigative reporter Kai Hermann. "There it stated that he was of great use to Argentina because he played an important role in all of Latin America in the fight against communism. From the dossier, it was also clear that Altmann worked for the Americans."
As the Bolivian coup took shape, Bolivian Col. Luis Arce-Gomez, the cousin of cocaine kingpin Roberto Suarez, recruited neo-fascist terrorists such as Italian Stefano della Chiaie who had been working with the Argentine death squads. Dr. Alfredo Candia, the Bolivian leader of the World Anti-Communist League, was coordinating the arrival of these paramilitary operatives from Argentina and Europe, Hermann reported. Meanwhile, Barbie started a secret lodge, called Thule. During meetings, he lectured to his followers underneath swastikas by candlelight.
While the CIA was encouraging this aggressive anti-communism on one level, Levine and his DEA field agents were moving against some of the conspirators for drug crimes. In May 1980, DEA in Miami seized 854 pounds of cocaine base and arrested two top Bolivian traffickers from the Roberto Suarez organization. But Levine saw the bust double-crossed, he suspected, for geo-political reasons.
One suspect, Jose Roberto Gasser "was almost immediately released from custody by the Miami U.S. attorney's office," Levine wrote. (Gasser was the son of Bolivian WACL associate Erwin Gasser, a leading figure in the upcoming coup.) The other defendant saw his bail lowered, letting him flee the United States. Levine worried about the fate of Bolivian officials who had helped DEA.
On June 17, 1980, in nearly public planning for the coup, six of Bolivia's biggest traffickers met with the military conspirators to hammer out a financial deal for future protection of the cocaine trade. A La Paz businessman said the coming putsch should be called the "Cocaine Coup," a name that would stick.
Less than three weeks later, on July 6, DEA agent Levine met with a Bolivian trafficker named Hugo Hurtado-Candia. Over drinks, Hurtado outlined plans for the "new government" in which his niece Sonia Atala, a major cocaine supplier, will "be in a very strong position."
Later, an Argentine secret policeman told Levine that the CIA knew about the coup. "You North Americans amaze me. Don't you speak to your own people?" the officer wondered. "Do you think Bolivia's government -- or any government in South America -- can be changed without your government and mine being aware of it?"
When Levine asked why that affected the planned DEA investigation, the Argentine answered, "Because the same people he's naming as drug dealers are the people we are helping to rid Bolivia of leftists. ...Us. The Argentines ... working with your CIA."
The Cocaine Coup Cometh
On July 17, the Cocaine Coup began, spearheaded by Barbie and his neo-fascist goon squad dubbed Fiances of Death. "The masked thugs were not Bolivians; they spoke Spanish with German, French and Italian accents," Levine wrote. "Their uniforms bore neither national identification nor any markings, although many of them wore Nazi swastika armbands and insignias."
The slaughter was fierce. When the putschists stormed the national labor headquarters, they wounded labor leader Marcelo Quiroga, who had led the effort to indict former military dictator Hugo Banzer on drug and corruption charges. Quiroga "was dragged off to police headquarters to be the object of a game played by some of the torture experts imported from Argentina's dreaded Mechanic School of the Navy," Levine wrote.
"These experts applied their 'science' to Quiroga as a lesson to the Bolivians, who were a little backward in such matters. They kept Quiroga alive and suffering for hours. His castrated, tortured body was found days later in a place called 'The valley of the Moon' in southern La Paz." Women captives were gang-raped as part of their torture.
To Levine back in Buenos Aires, it was soon clear "that the primary goal of the revolution was the protection and control of Bolivia's cocaine industry. All major drug traffickers in prison were released, after which they joined the neo-Nazis in their rampage. Government buildings were invaded and trafficker files were either carried off or burned. Government employees were tortured and shot, the women tied and repeatedly raped by the paramilitaries and the freed traffickers."
The fascists celebrated with swastikas and shouts of "Heil Hitler!" Hermann reported. Col. Arce-Gomez, a central-casting image of a bemedaled, pot-bellied Latin dictator, grabbed broad powers as Interior Minister. Gen. Luis Garcia Meza was installed as Bolivia's new president.
Moon & the Putschists
Among the first well-wishers arriving in La Paz to congratulate the new government was Moon's top lieutenant, Bo Hi Pak. The Moon organization published a photo of Pak meeting with Gen. Garcia Meza. After the visit to the mountainous capital, Pak declared, "I have erected a throne for Father Moon in the world's highest city."
According to later Bolivian government and newspaper reports, a Moon representative invested about $4 million in preparations for the coup. Bolivia's WACL representatives also played key roles, and CAUSA, one of Moon's anti-communist organizations, listed as members nearly all the leading Bolivian coup-makers.
After the coup, Arce-Gomez went into partnership with big narco-traffickers, including Trafficante's Cuban-American smugglers. Klaus Barbie and his neo-fascists got a new assignment: protecting Bolivia's major cocaine barons and transporting drugs to the border.
"The paramilitary units -- conceived by Barbie as a new type of SS -- sold themselves to the cocaine barons," concluded Hermann. "The attraction of fast money in the cocaine trade was stronger than the idea of a national socialist revolution in Latin America."
According to Levine, Arce-Gomez boasted to one top trafficker: "We will flood America's borders with cocaine." It was boast that the coup-makers backed up.
"Bolivia soon became the principal supplier of cocaine base to the then fledgling Colombian cartels, making themselves the main suppliers of cocaine to the United States," Levine said. "And it could not have been done without the tacit help of DEA and the active, covert help of the CIA."
On Dec. 16, 1980, Cuban-American intelligence operative Ricardo Morales told a Florida prosecutor that he had become an informer in Operation Tick-Talks, a Miami-based investigation that implicated Frank Castro and other Bay of Pigs veterans in a conspiracy to import cocaine from the new military rulers of Bolivia.
Years later, Medellin cartel money-launderer Ramon Milian Rodriguez testified before Senate hearings chaired by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. Milian Rodriguez stated that in the early days of the cartel, "Bolivia was much more significant than the other countries."
As the drug lords consolidated their power in Bolivia, the Moon organization expanded its presence, too. Hermann reported that in early 1981, war criminal Barbie and Moon leader Thomas Ward were often seen together in apparent prayer. Mingolla, the Argentine intelligence officer, described Ward as his CIA paymaster, with the $1,500 monthly salary coming from the CAUSA office of Ward's representative.
On May 31, 1981, Moon representatives sponsored a CAUSA reception at the Sheraton Hotel's Hall of Freedom in La Paz. Bo Hi Pak and Garcia Meza led a prayer for President Reagan's recovery from an assassination attempt. In his speech, Bo Hi Pak declared, "God had chosen the Bolivian people in the heart of South America as the ones to conquer communism." According to a later Bolivian intelligence report, the Moon organization sought to recruit an "armed church" of Bolivians, with about 7,000 Bolivians receiving some paramilitary training.
Cocaine Stresses
But by late 1981, the obvious cocaine taint was straining U.S.-Bolivian relations. "The Moon sect disappeared overnight from Bolivia as clandestinely as they had arrived," Hermann reported. Only Ward and a couple of others stayed on with the Bolivian information agency as it worked on a transition back to civilian rule.
According to Hermann's account, Mingolla met Ward in the cafeteria Fontana of La Paz's Hotel Plaza in March 1982. Ward was discouraged about the Bolivian operation. "The whole affair with Altmann , with the whole fascism and Nazism bit, that was a dead-end street," Ward complained. "It was stupid having Moon and CAUSA here." Ward could not be reached for comment about this article.
The Cocaine Coup leaders soon found themselves on the run. Interior Minister Arce-Gomez was eventually extradited to Miami and is serving a 30-year sentence for drug trafficking. Roberto Suarez got a 15-year prison sentence. Gen. Garcia Meza is a fugitive from a 30-year sentence imposed on him in Bolivia for abuse of power, corruption and murder. Barbie was returned to France to face a life sentence for war crimes. He died in 1992.
But Moon's organization paid little price for the Cocaine Coup. Funding U.S. conservative political conferences and founding the ultra-conservative Washington Times in 1982, Moon ingratiated himself to President Reagan and other leading Republicans. Moon also continued to build a political-economic base in South America.
In 1984, The New York Times called Moon's church "one of the largest foreign investors" in Uruguay, having invested some $70 million in the three preceding years. Investments included Uruguay's third largest bank, the Banco de Credito; the Hotel Victoria Plaza in Montevideo; and the newspaper, Ultimas Noticias. Moon's venture were aided by generous tax breaks from Uruguay's military government. "Church officials said Uruguay was especially attractive because of liberal laws that allow easy repatriation of profits abroad," the Times reported.
Supporting the Nicaraguan contra rebels, Moon's organization developed close ties, too, with the powerful Honduran military which gave the contras base camps along the Nicaraguan border. Again, Moon's representatives were in contact with officers suspected of supporting the shipment of cocaine into the United States. Anti-Castro Cubans linked to the Miami drug networks also appeared on the scene to advance the anti-communist cause as did intelligence officers from the Argentine military.
The Honduran Connection
Kerry's Senate report concluded that Honduras became an important way station for cocaine shipments heading north. "Elements of the Honduran military were involved ... in the protection of drug traffickers from 1980 on," the report stated. "These activities were reported to appropriate U.S. government officials throughout the period. Instead of moving decisively to close down the drug trafficking by stepping up the DEA presence in the country and using the foreign assistance the United States was extending to the Hondurans as a lever, the United States closed the DEA office in Tegucigalpa and appears to have ignored the issue."
In the mid-1980s, when journalists and congressional investigators began probing the evidence of contra-connected drug trafficking, they encountered harsh attacks from Moon's Washington Times. An Associated Press story that I co-wrote with Brian Barger was denounced on the Times' front page as a "political ploy."
The Times attacked Kerry's investigators first for wasting money and then with obstructing justice . Now, with a clearer picture of Moon's historic ties to drug-tainted officials in South America, the harassment of these investigations takes on a different appearance, of possible self-protection.
More recently, Moon has shifted his base of operation to a luxurious estate in Uruguay and continued to expand his South American holdings. He has invested heavily in the Argentine province of Corrientes, a border area near Paraguay that is known as a major smuggling center.
In a sermon to his followers on Jan. 2, 1996, Moon announced plans to begin building small airstrips in remote areas of South America as well as bases for submarines to evade Coast Guard patrols. Saying the airfield project would be for tourism, he added that "in the near future, we will have many small airports throughout the world." The submarines, he said, were needed because "there are so many restrictions due to national boundaries worldwide."
With his history and prominence, Moon and his organization would seem a natural attraction for U.S. government scrutiny. But Moon may have purchased insurance against any intrusive investigation by buying so many powerful American politicians that Washington's power centers can no more afford the scrutiny than he can. http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon6.html
Oh, god, there's so much more of this. Only a fool would try to pull the wool over peoples' eyes on this subject!
~~~~~~~~~~
For general information, you'll see a fair number of drug trafficking right-wing, of course, a-holes in this group of Bolivian School of the Americas grads:
Notorious Bolivian School of the Americas Graduates
*Miguel Alvarez Delgado 1977 Joint Operations Links to drug trafficking: Accused in the "Narconavales" case of cashing checks that came from a drug-trafficking ring. The proceedings against him were stayed in 1997. (RAI)
Luis Arce Gómez 1958, Communications Officer
1958, Tactical Officer, Radio Repair Armed insurrection (convicted), 1980: With Garcia Meza Tejada, Arce Gómez plotted and executed a bloody coup, which occurred on July 17, 1980. (Garcia Meza became "president" and Arce Gómez minister of the Interior.) Prior to the coup, Arce Gómez was in charge of assembling a paramilitary force to overthrow the government. (One of his recruits was Klaus Barbie.) (AW:BTR)
Drug trafficking (convicted), 1989: Arce Gómez, who was declared a fugitive from justice in 1986, was captured by Bolivian police in 1989. With the approval of the Bolivian government, he was handed over to the United States and is currently serving a 30-year sentence in Miami for drug-trafficking. (AW:BTR)
GEN Hugo Banzer Suárez 1956, Motor Officer Course
1988, SOA "Hall of Fame"
1989, Guest Speaker Military dictator, 1971-78: Achieved power by means of a violent coup. Developed the "Banzer Plan" to silence outspoken members of the Church; the plan became a blueprint for repression throughout Latin America. Also known for sheltering Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, "The Butcher of Lyons," and for supporting and collaborating with Garcia Meza's regime. (AJC, 10/30/88; AW:BTR)
*Grover Bilbao Terrazas 1967, Cadet Course Drug-trafficking: Accused and sentenced in the "Narcoavion" case (1995) as a drug supplier. (RAI)
*Luis Caballero Tirado 1993, Curso de Comando y Estado Mayor (0-3)
1990, Psychological Operations O-22
1990, Operaciones de Estado Mayor Mistreatment of prisoners: When the president of the Human Rights Commission visited the headquarters of UMOPAR (Mobil Rural Patrol Units), he discovered 93 detainees, including two minors and one prisoners with fractured ribs and a punctured lung from being kicked by UMOPAR agents under Caballeros' command. Caballero has also publicly admitted that 40% of the operations carried out under his command involve human rights violations such as excessive use of force. (VDHL)
*Isaac Chavarria Diez de Medina 1968 Cadet Course
1970 Officer Gen. Supply Drug-trafficking: Primary defendant in the "Narcovinculos" case (1994-6). Died in 1995 in a La Paz jail due to lack of medical attention.
Cpt Gonzalo Cuellar Justinio 1990, General Staff Officer Course Mistreatment of prisoners, 1990: Cuellar Justinio has been charged with illegal detention of prisoners, assault, soliciting pay-offs in exchange for releases, forcing prisoners to sign false confessions. (AIN)
GEN Mario Escobari Guerra 1959, Engineer Officer Course Issuing unconstitutional decrees (convicted) in cooperation with armed insurrection, 1980: Convicted in April 1993 for signing unconstitutional decrees in cooperation with Garcia Meza. (BSC)
*Carlos Fernandez Gonzalez 1961, Military Intelligence Links to drug trafficking: Fernandez Gonzalez was relieved of his position as Undersecretary of the Interior under the government of Lidia Gueiler (1980) due to concrete evidence of his links to drug trafficking. Later he regained his image and was named President of the National Council for the Struggle Against Drug-Trafficking. However, in 1983, he was accused of involvement with the disappearance of 150 kilos of cocaine. He also was relieved of his duties as head of the Special Security Forces of the Ministry of Interior after he was accused of covering up drug-trafficking. (RAI)
Ruben Dario Guzmán Hurtado 1970, Small Unit Warfare Issuing unconstitutional decrees and fraud (convicted) in cooperation with armed insurrection, 1980: Guzmán Hurtado was sentenced in April 1993 on charges related to Garcia Meza's 1980 coup. (BSC)
CPT Carlos Helguero Larrea 1970, Small Unit Warfare Armed insurrection (implicated), 1980: Implicated in cases of murder committed in association with the Garcia Meza coup in 1980. (BSC)
*Pablo Oswaldo Justiniano Vaca 1986, Comando y Estado Mayor Drug trafficking: Primary defendant in the "Narconavales" case, accused of running a drug trafficking ring in the Navy since 1975. Detained in 1995. Also implicated in the exchange of brazilian tin for cocaine in 1989.
*Freddy Lopez Arispe 1962, Infantry Officer Course Illegal arms trafficking: Detained in 1993 on charges of arms trafficking to the ex-Yugoslavia. (RAI)
CPT Tito Montaño Belzu 1970, Small Unit Warfare Armed Insurrection, murder (convicted), 1980: Paramilitarist Montaño Belzu was sentenced (on April 21, 1993) to 30 years in prison for murder, and 20 years for genocide, in connection with Garcia Meza's bloody 1980 coup. (AW:BTR)
SGT Franz Pizarro Solano 1979, Commando Operations Murder of Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz: On May 2, 1998, Interpol began an international search for Pizarro Solano, who is suspected of assasinating the Bolivian socialist leader and ex-minister Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz on July 17, 1980 during Garcia Meza's coup. Pizarro Solano is reported to have been living and working in Japan for years. (Clarín, May 3, 1998)
COL Avelino Rivero Parada 1977, Joint Operations Issuing unconstitutional decrees (convicted) in cooperation with armed insurrection, 1980: Convicted in April 1993 for signing unconstitutional cooperation with Garcia Meza - Including annulments of democratic elections, abnegation of trade union rights, purging university teaching and administrative staff, illegal purchases of land, vehicles and aircraft for the armed forces, and dismissal and replacement of the Bolivian Supreme Court. Rivero Parada was minister of public health and social security under Garcia Meza. (AW:BTR)
Ltc Freddy Quiroga-Reque 1980, Joint Operations Course Armed insurrection, murder (convicted), 1980: Sentenced (on April 21, 1993) to 30 years in prison for murder in connection with Garcia Meza's bloody 1980 coup (AW:BTR, BSC)
Vice-Admiral Alberto Saenz Klinsky 1973, "O-4" Minister under Garcia Meza: Saenz Klinsky was a member of Garcia Meza's second cabinet, but was never formally charged with issuing unconstitutional decrees. (AW:BTR)
COL Rogelio Vargas 1990, General Staff Officer Course Mistreatment of prisoners, 1990: 240 prisoners were beaten, denied food, forced to stay on their knees for hours on November 7, 1990. (AIN)
GEN Guido Vildoso Calderón 1962, Infantry Weapons and Tactics Military dictator, 1982: Achieved power by military appointment. (WP, 5/19/94)
http://www.derechos.org/soa/bol-not.html
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