Government denounces financed ambush against anti-drug officers in the Chapare | Gobierno denuncia emboscada financiada contra efectivos antidroga en el Chapare

By Erbol:

THERE ARE INJURED OFFICERS

There are injured police officers and vehicles with damage.

Police officers were ambushed early Wednesday morning in the municipality of Villa Tunari, Chapare province of Cochabamba, while they were carrying out an operation to destroy cocaine factories, the Government reported.

The anti-drug czar, Ernesto Justiniano, stated that “the ambush was neither spontaneous nor social, but rather organized and financed.”

As proof, he released an audio in which a person in Quechua is allegedly offering money to community members in exchange for blocking the police officers who were intervening in his “post.”

“When money is offered to community members to protect a drug factory, we are not facing a social protest; we are facing organized crime. The State will not allow rural families to be used as human shields by criminal structures,” said Vice Minister Justiniano.

According to the authority, the officers were attacked with stones, firecrackers, machetes, and other blunt objects, leaving three police officers injured.

He indicated that three vehicles ended up with shattered windows and structural damage.

He expressed his support for the police officers and warned that whoever attacks them “attacks the Republic, attacks the Constitution, and attacks every Bolivian family that wants to live in peace.”

According to the Police, seven people have been arrested in this case; three vehicles and two motorcycles were also seized.

Among those arrested is a minor and the adult man who allegedly incited the mobilization.

The community members surrounded the injured personnel and demanded the return of precursors and the release of those detained, for which the security forces proceeded to use chemical agents.

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