The Bolivian government announced the installation of a radar system for border surveillance in the fight against drug trafficking, Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti said. The project is the responsibility of that country’s Defense Ministry.
The Bolivian government announced the installation of a radar system for border surveillance in the fight against drug trafficking, Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti said. The project is the responsibility of that country’s Defense Ministry.
“Brazil is going to have (radars) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Argentina is going to deploy its radars, and we have to do our part. What we need is radar coverage along our borders with the relevant standards, air capability, helicopters for the fight against drug trafficking, and increases in our ties with other countries,” Llorenti told Bolivian daily La Razón.
According to the newspaper, the project will accompany the six laws being drafted in the context of the 2011-2015 Strategy for the Fight against Drug Trafficking and the Reduction of Excess Coca Crops, being drafted by the administration, as well as those dedicated to controlling coca and other controlled substances, which will replace Law 1008.
Likewise, in July, Argentina’s ambassador to Bolivia, Horacio Macedo, announced that his country would install 20 radars along its borders with Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil, in order to make a significant contribution to the fight against illegal drug trafficking in the context of Decree 1091, the objective of which is to implement Operation Northern Shield, planned by our security ministry.
The Brazilian ambassador in La Paz, Marcel Fortuna Biato, said that surveillance of the border airspace will be conducted with mutual overflight authorization. “We’re going to share each piece of information, which will enable us to conduct significant operations. We also want to improve those conditions with Peru, Chile, and Paraguay,” Sacha Llorenti concluded.
Finally, Llorenti affirmed that the only remaining hurdles to the signing of a trilateral agreement among Brazil, Bolivia, and the United States for the fight against drug trafficking are “details that at least on the Bolivian side have already been resolved.”