The Andean ridge countries are the focal point of current U.S. security assistance in the Western Hemisphere. Colombia and its neighbors are now receiving the largest aid package ever granted to Latin America, a $1.3 billion "supplemental appropriations" measure introduced by the Clinton Administration in January and signed into law on July 13.

The supplemental roughly doubles existing programs for Bolivia as well, contributing $110 million: $25 million for drug interdiction and $85 million for alternative development programs. The $25 million for Bolivia’s security forces will support President Hugo Banzer’s ongoing military coca-eradication campaign in the Chapare, a jungle region in eastern Bolivia, according to a July 2000 State Department report.

The Department plans to use $25 million to support interdiction and eradication efforts in the Chapare and Yungas coca growing regions. Funding will also support border control and inspection facilities on the Paraguayan/Argentinean/Brazilian borders; improved checkpoints in the Chapare; intelligence collection; training for helicopter pilots and C-130 pilots and mechanics; spare parts for C-130 aircraft, helicopters and riverine boats; vehicles; training for police and controlled substance prosecutors; and justice sector reforms. [1]

The United States planned in 2000 to use funds in the Defense Department’s “section 1004” counter-drug budget to build three base camps for Bolivian Army coca-eradication forces in the Chapare. (Section 1004(b)(4) of the 1991 National Defense Authorization Act allows the Pentagon to use its counter-drug budget for “the establishment and operation of bases of operations or training facilities.”) At a cost of $6.4 million, the Southern Command planned to build a brigade headquarters and three 520-man facilities at Chimore, Fonadal and Ichoa. The sites, according to a Southern Command document, would have allowed the Bolivian Army to “maintain a presence and prevent narco-traffickers from taking over once the strong government presence departs” following the Chapare eradication campaign. [2]

Bolivia was convulsed in late September and early October by massive protests of Chapare peasants affected by the eradication campaign. One of the protestors’ main demands was that Bolivia abandon its plan to establish the three new barracks. The Bolivian government agreed to this demand, leaving the U.S. construction funds unspent. It is currently unclear how these funds will be used; improvements to existing facilities are a likely alternative.

According to the annual Foreign Military Training Report, the United States trained 2,152 Bolivian military and police personnel in 1999. [3] This study was able to identify nineteen Special Forces training deployments to Bolivia in 1999, between the JCET program and counter-drug training. [4]

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