Morales: Drug Cartels Better Equipped Than Bolivian Army
Latin American Herald Tribune
July 28, 2010
LA PAZ -- President Evo Morales confirmed Tuesday that drug traffickers have more technology and modern equipment than Bolivia's police and armed forces, and he asked for help from the international community to address that deficiency.
"By now, I have taken note that ... drug trafficking has more technology than the national police, more modern equipment than the armed forces," he said in a speech at the foreign ministry.
Morales, who remains leader of the country's largest union of coca growers, spoke about the matter at the presentation of the delegate for Bolivia from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, Cesar Guedes of Peru.
The Bolivian leader demanded that the U.N. coordinate international action in the fight against drug trafficking to cooperate with Bolivia, for example by providing radar and secure-communications equipment.
Bolivia, like neighboring Peru, permits cultivation of coca -- the raw material of cocaine -- in limited quantities for use in folk remedies, teas and Andean religious rights, but both governments maintain a hard line toward illegal drugs.
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