June 25, 2023, 4:00 AM
June 25, 2023, 4:00 AM
It happened on June 21, 2022. The tranquility of the holiday in the department of Santa Cruz was disturbed by the crime of three police officers in the municipality of Porongo. One year later, the perception is that justice is not being done and, even worse, there are signs that those responsible, presumably linked to drug trafficking, are being protected.
Two police officers: Eustaquio Olano and Alfonso Chávez, as well as a Gacip volunteer, David Candia, were shot, murdered in cold blood. The main defendant is Misael Nállar Viveros, who is imprisoned in the Chonchocoro prison. It happened in Porongo, a municipality where the defendant gathered his friends to compete with Terix vehicles, flaunting his wealth and rubbing shoulders with people of high social status, who paid homage to him in exchange for enjoying the allegedly ill-gotten waste of money.
In 2022, 36 years have passed since another event linked to drug trafficking. The murder of the scientist Noel Kempff Mercado, a guide and the pilot who transported the group in the Caparuch mountains. They arrived at an “inopportune” time and discovered a large cocaine factory. Why the reference? Well, because the policemen, who were patrolling in Porongo, also arrived at the place where Nállar was at an “inopportune” moment, they confronted the group and were later followed and executed.
In both situations, drug traffickers were the guest of honor at celebrations for all social classes. In the case of Caparuch there was a social reaction of repudiation; In the case of the policemen there is almost a resignation and the worst thing is that an unbearable sensation of official cover-up and social tolerance prevails.
Those who have followed up on the Porongo case question why there was so much resistance to investigate Nallar for drug trafficking, despite having ties to people accused of this crime, such as Einar Lima Lobo, his father-in-law who is imprisoned in Brazil for drug trafficking; In addition to being related to Reina Duarte, imprisoned abroad and accused of being a figurehead for a drug lord in Paraguay, in addition to having found substantial assets whose origin he has not been able to justify. Only a prosecutor dared to make an accusation in this regard, but now she is protected by her because a few days ago they tried to kill her.
There are also questions as to why the photographs that were on the cell phones of the murdered police officers have disappeared. Likewise, it did not cease to surprise that relatives of the victims withdrew the complaint against Misael Nállar, in an act that surprised even the mother of one of the uniformed men riddled with bullets.
There are many doubts and contradictions that have been seen in the process that follows the crime of the police officers. In other times, touching members of the National Police in such a flagrant way would have marked a before and after, a purge of the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking. However, in this case many questions remain and the conviction that there is a lack of transparency.
Drug trafficking is a fundamental problem in Bolivia, now and 36 years ago. It is an issue to which the Government should devote maximum attention, even more so when accusations of cover-up and protection of this crime arise from the same ranks of the MAS. What happened on June 21, 2022 must mark a milestone and society must have the ability to reject those who are linked to drug traffickers. A year ago it happened with three policemen, be careful that later on violence wins the streets and holiday rides.
