The governments of Bolivia, Brazil, and the United States will soon sign a joint agreement to verify the eradication of coca plantings on Bolivian territory, an official source revealed in La Paz on 5 July.
The governments of Bolivia, Brazil, and the United States will soon sign a joint agreement to verify the eradication of coca plantings on Bolivian territory, an official source revealed in La Paz on 5 July.
“Next week, or in the worst-case scenario, by 16 July, the agreement, which is beneficial to the government” of Bolivia “is going to be signed,” Deputy Minister of Social Defense Felipe Cáceres, the chief political figure in charge of the fight against drugs, said at a press conference.
He explained that this is a “pilot project to verify the eradication of excess plantings,” which also includes “the equipment and modernization” of state institutions linked to the fight against drug trafficking.
The initiative will make it possible to obtain information “in real time on the hectares of coca eradicated,” Cáceres added.
Bolivia and Brazil also have an agreement to monitor drug trafficking using Brazilian unmanned planes.
Until 2008, Washington was the chief source of economic support for the fight against drugs in Bolivia, which is one of the world’s leading cocaine producers, along with Colombia and Peru, according to the United Nations.
Bolivia currently has 30,900 hectares planted with coca. Of that total, only 12,000 hectares are legally recognized, for infusion, chewing, and Andean religious rituals.