7 Die Amid U.S.-Backed Crackdown on Coca
A Bolivian policeman and a soldier were kidnapped, tortured and killed by narco-guerrillas as poor farmers protested an army crackdown on the illegal sale of coca leaves, police said.
The victims’ bodies were found in the Chapare jungle region, 435 miles southeast of La Paz, the capital.
Five others, including farmers and police officers, were killed in riots this week after authorities shut down a coca market in the village of Sacaba.
The deaths were the latest violence amid a U.S.-backed government campaign to eradicate coca, the raw material used to make cocaine.
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