Andean Group - September 2026

Despite being the world’s third largest producer of coca and occupying a strategically important position between the coca fields of Peru and the Brazilian ports from where cocaine is shipped onwards to Europe, Bolivia has long been spared the narco-violence suffered by some of its neighbours. This comparatively peaceful status may now be at risk amid concerns about the encroachment of powerful Brazilian organised crime groups. President Rodrigo Paz’s government has responded by deploying the military to border areas and launching a joint security plan with Brazil.

The experience of Ecuador in recent years offers a cautionary tale of how rapidly the security situation can deteriorate once foreign groups begin vying for control of trafficking routes. Whereas in Ecuador the security meltdown has been fuelled by the influence of Colombian and Mexican criminal groups, in Bolivia the risk comes from Brazil, whose two most powerful gangs, Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), seem to be spreading into Bolivian territory.

The alarm was raised on 5 August by Jorge Santistevan, the secretary for citizen security in the eastern department of Santa Cruz. He held a press conference to urge President Paz to order an “immediate military intervention” against criminal groups in Santa Cruz and around the country, arguing that the government should take advantage of the expanded powers it holds during a 90-day state of exception which Paz declared in late June in response to anti-government protests. Santistevan said that “a wave of contract killings, the ambush of a police patrol, the escape today of two highly dangerous prisoners, and the murder a few hours ago of a Brazilian foreign citizen, reveal the presence of criminal organisations with high capacities which are above those of the security forces and the State itself”.

The Paz administration had already deployed the military on 2 August to carry out preventive patrols in the border town of San Matías, Santa Cruz, although this fell short of the more combative stance demanded by Santistevan. Explaining the reasons behind the troop deployment, Interior Minister Marco Antonio Oviedo told journalists on 4 August that CV and the PCC are “fighting over a corridor through which narcotraffickers take drugs out of the country”. This problem is not limited to Santa Cruz. Local media has reported multiple murders of Brazilians in the northern departments of Beni and Pando, adding to perceptions that rival Brazilian groups are waging a turf war in these areas.

Diálogo Americas, the news site of the US Southern Command (Southcom), published an article on 28 July stating that, “while Paraguay served for decades as the principal operational rear base” for the PCC and CV, “the center of gravity of their operations is increasingly shifting toward Bolivia”. The goal is to “exert more direct control over the early stages of the cocaine production chain and the principal export routes”. The article cites Carlos Eduardo da Silva, a transnational crime researcher and former civil police investigator in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, as saying that “Bolivia offers what Paraguay can no longer provide to the same extent: proximity to cocaine-producing areas, access to the Peruvian cocaine corridor, and a more than 3,400-kilometer border with Brazil, much of it running through remote riverine and Amazonian terrain”.

Bolivia’s growing importance for criminal groups in neighbouring countries was reflected in the 13 March capture in Santa Cruz of Sebastián Marset, the alleged leader of Uruguayan group Primer Cártel Uruguayo (PCU) [SSR-26-04]. Another alleged foreign drug trafficker, Jorge Isaac ‘Mapaya’ Campas, was arrested on 6 April in Santa Cruz. Mapaya is accused of leading Los Espartanos, one of the two main criminal gangs operating in the Colombian port city of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca.

The Bolivian and Brazilian governments launched a joint plan on 13 August to bolster border security, named ‘Fronteras Seguras’. This was unveiled at a ceremony in Guayaramerín, a border town in Beni, which was attended by Paz and Brazilian officials including Elias Resende de Oliveira, chief secretary in the government of the neighbouring Brazilian state of Rondônia, and Alex Redano, president of the Rondônia state legislature.

The plan seeks to increase coordination between the countries’ police forces, with a focus on tackling drug smuggling, contraband, and human trafficking. On the Bolivian side of the border, Paz said that elite police units will be permanently deployed to Pando’s capital Cobija, Guayaramerín, and three municipalities in Santa Cruz – Puerto Suárez, San Ignacio de Velasco, and San Matías. The Paz administration has emphasised that this will be a long-term commitment, and that rather than responding to isolated incidents, the objective is to create a cross-border anti-crime strategy in conjunction with the Brazilian authorities.

An expanded security role for Bolivia

Bolivia has played a significantly greater role in regional security matters under President Paz. Since taking office in November 2025, Paz has eschewed the ‘anti-imperialism’ that defined the foreign and counternarcotics policies of his left-wing predecessors Luis Arce (2020-2025) and Evo Morales (2006-2019), who were both stern critics of the US-led war on drugs and allowed coca production to rise beyond the 22,000-hectare legal limit that is allowed for traditional use.

Instead, Paz was quick to sign up to the US-led Shield of the Americas security alliance, with Defence Minister Ernesto Justiniano making a pitch for tighter integration during a summit of the alliance in Panama on 11 August. Justiniano argued for closer intelligence sharing between member states, tighter controls over land borders and airspace, the use of new technologies to fight crime, and a crackdown on criminal groups’ financial structures.

Also indicative of Bolivia’s new role in regional security matters was the country’s participation in the ‘Green Shield 2026’ operation, which took place in the Amazon from 15-31 July and involved police forces from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. The Green Shield operations are part of the International Initiative of Law Enforcement for Climate (I2LEC), which was launched by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2023 and is supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

According to WAM, the official Emirati news agency, this was one of the largest ever coordinated international policing operations against environmental crimes in the Amazon. WAM stated that the operation, directed from Colombia’s capital Bogotá, involved the deployment of over 3,600 security personnel and resulted in 839 arrests in 1,045 field operations. Across the five countries, WAM stated that 280,450 cubic metres of illegally harvested timber were seized, as well as more than 195 tonnes of minerals and 3,079 live animals destined for wildlife trafficking. The cumulative value of seized goods reportedly exceeded US$280m.

The commander of Bolivia’s national police, Mirko Sokol, told national daily El Deber on 16 August that the country’s participation “allowed us to strengthen our operational capacities in the fight against environmental crimes that affect forests, biodiversity, rivers, and communities”. He added that “unity and coordinated efforts are essential” for protecting the Amazon.

Drone surveillance

In a 16 March meeting, Bolivia’s then Defence Minister Marcelo Salinas and his Brazilian counterpart, José Múcio Monteiro Filho, agreed to increase surveillance of the shared border using technology such as drones and radars, according to a statement from the Bolivian defence ministry. Key topics of discussion included security issues relating to river transport, border security, and illegal mining.

Argentine political operative accused of femicide

Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine political consultant who has advised the governments or election campaigns of Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz, Honduras’ Nasry Asfura, and Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), was arrested in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz on 18 August. He was charged with the attempted femicide of his former girlfriend, Nadia Beller, who was shot by two gunmen in Santa Cruz two days earlier. The case is sending political shockwaves through governments associated with Cerimedo, who according to Beller had an office next door to Paz in Bolivia’s presidential palace.