By Freddy Lacio, El Deber:

The airstrip in the Huanchaca mountain range where the triple murder that shocked all Bolivians took place

The murder of Noel Kempff Mercado exposed the dangers of cocaine. Bolivia now faces territorial disputes, contract killings, and growing concern over the penetration of organized crime into institutions and the legal economy.

Forty years ago, the Huanchaca triple murder revealed to Bolivia a criminal structure capable of building a cocaine factory deep in the jungle, operating an airstrip, and killing anyone who came too close. Today, the challenge is more complex: drug trafficking has become decentralized into networks dedicated to production, transit, storage, money laundering, and territorial control.

According to criminal law expert and former prosecutor Joadel Bravo, the main threat is that this criminal activity could evolve into a parallel structure of economic, territorial, and institutional power, paving the way toward a narco-state.

In 1986, naturalist Noel Kempff Mercado, pilot Juan Cochamanidis, and guide Franklin Parada were murdered on the Caparuch Plateau, where a cocaine-processing facility was operating. Two Brazilians were convicted, but the owners and masterminds behind the operation were never identified. Two months later, Congressman Edmundo Salazar Terceros, who was investigating the massacre, was gunned down with complete impunity.

Four decades later, Bolivia has developed greater anti-drug operational capacity, but it also faces a more sophisticated criminal landscape. Government Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo reported 7,546 operations, 2,187 arrests, 16.29 tons of cocaine seized, and 446 drug-processing facilities destroyed.

Henry Oporto, director of the Milenio Foundation, argues that Bolivia has moved from merely producing coca leaves and coca paste to occupying a higher position in the drug trade chain: cocaine processing and manufacturing, as well as serving as a route for international trafficking. Smuggling, illegal mining, and money laundering have also become intertwined with these activities.

Oporto attributes this evolution to state weakness, limited territorial control, and the “capture” of institutions by criminal groups. Infiltration of the police and judicial system, combined with highly porous borders, has reduced the country’s ability to combat organized crime.

A Delicate Situation

Santa Cruz occupies a central position because of its borders with Brazil and Paraguay. The director of the Milenio Foundation also notes that it has become a refuge for drug traffickers. The case of Sebastián Marset demonstrated the ability of criminal organizations to deploy security networks, real estate holdings, and air logistics. Following his capture, Deputy Minister Ernesto Justiniano warned: “If one Marset is caught, there are probably nine others in the making.”

Police are investigating a dispute over these territories, involving the PCC and Comando Vermelho. As of September 3, authorities had recorded 46 deaths in 37 attacks displaying characteristics of executions or contract killings. Not all can be attributed to drug trafficking, but several involve theories of score-settling and disputes between criminal organizations.

For Bravo, this violence is what distinguishes the current scenario. In the past, Bolivia discovered the existence of powerful drug barons; today, it faces a decentralized and transnational criminal network seeking to control territories, routes, and markets.

“In 1986, Bolivia discovered that it had drug trafficking; 40 years later, the challenge is to prevent drug trafficking from becoming a parallel structure of economic, territorial, and institutional power, which would pave the way for Bolivia to become a narco-state,” he stated.

Huanchaca left behind a question that remains unanswered 40 years later: who was behind the business, and who protected it? The challenge continues to be tracing the money, uncovering the protection networks, and identifying those responsible who remain hidden behind the criminal structure.