The forgotten battle, article written by Humberto Vacaflor G. that appeared today in El Deber, follows [there are some notes I made inside this type of brackets for clarifying purposes]:

The news agenda in the country gets so overloaded  that some news are neglected and some are forgotten, even if they are so important that announce major changes.

Is the case with the news of the battle that took place on October 19th in Santa Rosa, inside the Isiboro Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS), between the Anti-narcotics Task Force which fights Drug Trafficking and Colombian drug traffickers.

It is true: that day had arrived in La Paz, those heroic walkers and the country was attentive to the loving reception given to them by La Paz city inhabitants. But that should not obscure the fact that it was the first skirmish between police and Colombian drug traffickers in Bolivian territory. This news came to confirm the information he heard around mid-year, released by America Economia magazine, the arrival in Bolivia of more than 4,000 Colombian traffickers during the last three years.

Bolivia has become the drug Mecca, shown by the fact that now there are news of the presence of gangs from Mexico, Colombia or Brazil. If they can be considered cartels or not, as it questions the national government, that is an unimportant detail, even it is only academic: cartel is only called if you have the possibility of imposing prices.

The truth is that there are now in Bolivia drug traffickers armed groups, as in Colombia, Peru or Mexico, or in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. Or in Russia. It is the first time that has been spoken in Bolivia, drug gangs that control a territory, or aspire to do so. The first news came from Yapacaní on that regard, where a peasant leader from El Chore reported that a Colombian organization has territorial control.

We know that in Colombia there are areas controlled by drug traffickers through their mercenaries, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Sendero Luminoso in Peru operating in the Valley of Apurimac and Ene River (VRAE). In both cases these groups collect taxes on the drug [production and trade], creating a parallel tax reality.

This time the news were about the TIPNIS, the most famous national park in the world. Versions were noisier than the news themselves. It was said that the police had made a ‘gift’ to the government, at the right time, when President Morales was determined not to yield, even with the [indigenous] protest-walkers installed in the Plaza Murillo. [‘gift’ as current government was blaming the police as being the only responsible for the brutal beating and arrest they made onto the TIPNIS indigenous protest-walk group]

And it was said that a famous embassy was behind that brilliant play. Or that the coordination with the police was strengthened with the Sanabria case. [Sanabria was a Bolivian police general in charge of antinarcotics, who was apprehended when he tried to smuggle cocaine into the USA]

None of that matters as much as the fact that we are now entering for the first time with the reality of armed groups operating in national territory, and that those group ambushed the police. [a young police lieutenant was shot to death]

When I started my journalism career, there was a similar story that appeared in the country, which shocked Bolivia: an armed group had appeared in the region of Ñancahuazú near Camiri, commanded by a certain guy called Che Guevara.

So 50 years later I do not want to let go this new act. Back then I worked as a special envoy to the area by a newspaper which no longer operates. [Presencia] This time I will excuse myself. [to go over there]

Nevertheless, back then the government sent the army to fight the irregular group.

http://www.eldeber.com.bo/2011/2011-11-06/vernotacolumnistas.php?id=111105211535