U.S. Role in Coca War Draws Fire

Bolivian Anti-Drug Unit Paid by Washington Accused of Abuses

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service

June 23, 2002; Page A01

CHIMORE, Bolivia -- The wary residents of this sweltering town in Bolivia's remote Chapare jungle have a nickname for the uniformed newcomers: "America's mercenaries."

The Expeditionary Task Force, the official name for an armed unit of 1,500 former Bolivian soldiers, is paid, fed, clothed and trained by the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, the Bolivian capital. Since setting up camp 18 months ago on three bases around this town of 2,000 inhabitants, the troops and their assault rifles have become a common sight on the local highway, putting down protests along the steamy jungle road by peasants combating a sweeping, U.S.-backed campaign to eradicate the area's biggest cash crop -- coca.

The force, which has tripled in size since its inception, has become one of the most contentious signs of Washington's involvement in the drug war.

U.S. and Bolivian military officials say the unit has played a vital role in an aggressive attempt to eradicate coca from the Chapare jungle, a region larger than Connecticut that provided the basic ingredient for almost half the world's cocaine during the 1980s and 1990s. Although the soldiers are directly salaried by the U.S. government, American and Bolivian officials describe the outfit as "a group of reservists" within a regular Bolivian army brigade and commanded by regular Bolivian officers.

But a growing number of critics are calling the force an abusive irregular army whose existence violates Bolivian law. And the unit, described by Latin American scholars as the first of its kind in the drug war, has been accused of using excessive force and committing human rights abuses, including murder and torture.

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