Bolivia Unions, Leftists Decry U.S. Role in Drug Raids

The presence of U.S. military forces here for an anti-narcotics operation with the Bolivian national police is generating growing political opposition from peasant organizations, unions, and left-wing parties.

The main criticism of President Victor Paz Estenssoro’s decision to request the entry of 160 U.S. military personnel, with six U.S. Army helicopters, is that the presence of foreign troops without approval of the Bolivian Congress violates the constitution and “national sovereignty.”

An assembly of peasant cooperatives from the Chapare region of Cochabamba, the main production region for coca leaf, denounced the U.S. military presence during a meeting at Villa Tunari, the gateway to the Chapare.

The Cochabamba departmental federation of peasants, during a meeting of 1,000 delegates from 14 provinces, approved a resolution condemning the Bolivian president’s decision to allow foreign troops into this country “with the right to kill.”

U.S. Forces Warned

Delegates from the Chapare region warned the U.S. forces “not to dare to set foot in our properties because they will be received as invaders.”

The Bolivian Workers Confederation, led by Juan Lechin, an elder statesman of the Bolivian labor movement, condemned the U.S. presence, and the chorus of opposition was taken up by all the left-wing parties, from the important Revolutionary Left Movement to a dozen splinter groups of Marxist or Trotskyite tendency. The Moscow-line Bolivian Communist Party added its condemnation of U.S. “imperialism.”

Jaime Paz Zamora, the leader and former presidential candidate of the Revolutionary Left Movement, said in a press conference that the U.S. military presence contributes to “national insecurity” in Bolivia.

The political left in Bolivia is badly split into factions. But the influential peasant federations, particularly in the Cochabamba valley and Chapara region, and the mine workers’ unions pose a threat of a national strike against the Paz government.

Protest Being Planned

Johnny Quiroga, a director of the Tropical Farm Workers Federation of Cochabamba, said before the assembly at Villa Tunari that a mobilization of peasants and miners was being discussed for Friday to express opposition to the government’s economic program. He said this could also become a nationalist protest against the U.S. military presence.

The six U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and a supporting contingent of 160 U.S. Army and Air Force personnel were brought here, at Paz’s request, to mount a series of raids on clandestine laboratories that produce most of the 100 tons of cocaine that Bolivia is believed to supply annually to the world market.

The first raid on Friday destroyed a laboratory in the northern part of Beni department capable of producing 3,000 pounds of cocaine weekly. Two raids on suspected cocaine-processing centers Saturday morning turned up nothing, Information Minister Herman Antelo reported. He told a press conference that the two places visited by Bolivian police in two U.S. helicopters were ordinary ranches.

The Paz government is already facing serious labor opposition because of a decision to close down half of the state-owned tin mines, which are losing money because of high costs and low international prices. This could lead to laying off up to 13,000 workers in an industry that has traditionally been the stronghold of leftist labor unions.

Tax Reform Opposed

The government is also facing opposition from peasant and commercial sectors against a tax reform that will increase sales taxes, as well as requiring owners of real estate, automobiles, airplanes and motorcycles to register their property and pay taxes on them for the first time.

Without the $200 million to be raised by the tax reform this year, the Paz government will not reach its goal of a balanced budget of about $500 million. This is a condition of the International Monetary Fund for making Bolivia eligible for foreign development aid and bank loans that are needed to revive an economy that lost 25% in production of goods and services between 1980 and 1985.

The only sector of the economy that expanded during that period was the production of coca leaf, intermediate processing of coca paste and final production of cocaine. This illegal drug activity brings Bolivia’s underground economy annual revenue of $600 million--more than all legal exports this year--according to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimates.