Drug trafficking linked to the protests | Narcotráfico vinculado a las protestas

By LHP, Eju.tv:

Carlos Toranzo points to drug trafficking as a financier of the blockades and mobilizations

The analyst stated that behind the mobilizations there are structures that benefit from illegal economies and from privileges accumulated over two decades. He maintains that part of the blockaders act due to economic pressure or fear of reprisals from union leaders.

The political and social analyst Carlos Toranzo stated that the blockades that are keeping several regions of the country paralyzed cannot be understood solely as social protest, but also respond to interests linked to drug trafficking and to groups seeking to preserve spaces of power built over the last twenty years.

During an interview on La Hora Pico of eju.tv, Toranzo argued that the current conflict is related to union and leadership structures that, according to his view, were strengthened during the governments of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) and are now reacting to the loss of privileges and political influence.

“This is the chronicle of a foretold coup,” the analyst stated, referring to previous warnings made by Evo Morales regarding mobilizations against a potential government that would not respond to his political interests.

Toranzo claimed that part of the mobilized people participate under obligation or pressure from their organizations. “There are people who block because they are paid by drug trafficking or by people from the Chapare, but there are other people who have to block because they are intimidated by their union leaders,” he said.

According to the analyst, over two decades Bolivia became a favorable space for the growth of illegal economies and criminal organizations linked to drug trafficking. In that context, he stated that various sectors developed economic and political dependency relationships with those activities.

Jorge Robles, Carlos Torazno and María Belén Mendivil. Photo: screenshot

“Bolivia became a sanctuary of drug trafficking,” he said, arguing that the expansion of these networks allowed the consolidation of power structures that today seek to prevent changes in the national political scenario.

The expert argued that external financing of the blockades would explain why the mobilizations have been sustained for weeks despite growing public rejection and the economic effects on producers, merchants, transporters, and consumers.

In his view, the conflict pits a well-organized minority seeking to preserve particular interests against a majority that wants to resume its normal activities. “The majority of the country wants to work, but they are not allowed to work,” he stated.

There is controversy in the country over the causes and financing of the blockades affecting different regions of the country, as well as over the role played by criminal organizations and illicit economies in the conflict currently facing Bolivia.

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