Crime in Bolivia

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Bolivian police in La Paz. Bolivia police Joel Alvarez.jpg
Bolivian police in La Paz.

Crime in Bolivia is investigated by the Bolivian police.

Contents

Crime by type

Murder

Bolivia has a homicide rate of 63 murders per 1,000,000 people. [1] There were 686 reported homicides in 2016. [1] In 2012, Bolivia had a murder rate of 121 per 1,000,000 population. [2] There were a total of 1,270 murders in Bolivia in 2012. [2]

Illegal drug trade

The Bolivian government has since 2004 implemented a policy of voluntary participation of farmers from all coca-growing regions in Bolivia. For instance, farmers in Chapare are allowed to grow one cato of coca per year. [3] Any coca grown beyond that limit, or any cultivation outside of approved coca-cultivation regions such as Chapare, is subject to elimination. The strategy relies on coca growers federations’ ability to enforce the agreement. Such federations are influential, and penalties for violations by farmers or lax enforcement by federations can be stern (including seizure of lands). As a result, coca cultivation in Bolivia fell to 27,200 hectares in 2011 from 31,000 hectares in 2010 - a 12 per cent decrease. [3]

Domestic violence

Domestic violence is a serious and underreported problem. [4] According to the Center for the Women’s Information and Development (CIDEM) and Emancipation Fund study, the number of reported domestic violence cases increased by 37% between 2007 and 2011. [5] A study by the Pan American Health Organization conducted in 12 Latin American countries found the highest prevalence of domestic violence against women to be in Bolivia. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homicide</span> Killing of a human by another human

Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coca eradication</span> Strategy of the War on Drugs in which crops of the source plant for cocaine are destroyed

Coca eradication is a strategy promoted by the United States government starting in 1961 as part of its "War on Drugs" to eliminate the cultivation of coca, a plant whose leaves are not only traditionally used by indigenous cultures but also, in modern society, in the manufacture of cocaine. The strategy was adopted in place of running educational campaigns against drug usage. The prohibitionist strategy is being pursued in the coca-growing regions of Colombia, Peru, and formerly Bolivia, where it is highly controversial because of its environmental, health and socioeconomic impact. Furthermore, indigenous cultures living in the Altiplano, such as the Aymaras, use the coca leaf in many of their cultural traditions, notably for its medicinal qualities in alleviating the feeling of hunger, fatigue and headaches symptomatic of altitude sicknesses. The growers of coca are named Cocaleros and part of the coca production for traditional use is legal in Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapare Province</span>

Chapare (Spanish:[tʃaˈpaɾe], also called The Chapare, is a rural province in the northern region of Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia. Most of the territory consists of valley rainforests that surround the area's main waterway, the Chapare River, which is also a tributary of the Amazon River. The provincial capital is Sacaba, 11 km east of Cochabamba. Its principal town is Villa Tunari, a popular tourist destination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femicide</span> Murder of women or girls because of their gender

Femicide or feminicide is a term for the hate crime of systematically killing women, girls, or females in general because of their gender and/or sex. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russell first defined the term as "the killing of females by males because they are female." Femicides are more often perpetrated by men against women. This is most likely due to unequal power between men and women as well as harmful gender roles, stereotypes, or social norms. Though femicide is not purely male-perpetrated but can be female-perpetrated as well.

Human Rights in Mexico refers to moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behaviour in Mexico, and are regularly protected as legal rights in municipal and international law. The problems include torture, extrajudicial killings and summary executions, police repression, sexual murder, and, more recently, news reporter assassinations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illegal drug trade in Colombia</span> Colombian sale and distribution of illegal narcotics

The illegal drug trade in Colombia has, since the 1970s, centered successively on four major drug trafficking cartels: Medellín, Cali, Norte del Valle, and North Coast, as well as several bandas criminales, or BACRIMs. The trade eventually created a new social class and influenced several aspects of Colombian culture, economics, and politics.

Despite a reportedly low crime rate in China, crime still occurs in various forms. The Chinese government does not release exact unified statistics on crime rates and the rate of criminal offending due to such information being considered politically sensitive. Scarce official statistics released are the subject of much academic debate due to allegations of statistical fabrication, under-reporting and corruption. The illegal drug trade in China is a significant driver of violent crime, including murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolivia–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

Bolivia–United States relations were established in 1837 with the first ambassadorial visit from the United States to Peru–Bolivian Confederation. The Confederation dissolved in 1839, and bilateral relations did not occur until 1848 when the United States recognized Bolivia as a sovereign state and appointed John Appleton as the Chargé d'Affaires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestic policy of the Evo Morales administration</span>

The domestic policy of the Evo Morales administration refers to the domestic policy initiatives of the former President of Bolivia, including past pre-presidential advocacies by Morales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriculture in Bolivia</span>

The role of agriculture in the Bolivian economy in the late 1980s expanded as the collapse of the tin industry forced the country to diversify its productive and export base. Agricultural production as a share of GDP was approximately 23 percent in 1987, compared with 30 percent in 1960 and a low of just under 17 percent in 1979. The recession of the 1980s, along with unfavorable weather conditions, particularly droughts and floods, hampered output. Agriculture employed about 46 percent of the country's labor force in 1987. Most production, with the exception of coca, focused on the domestic market and self-sufficiency in food. Agricultural exports accounted for only about 15 percent of total exports in the late 1980s, depending on weather conditions and commodity prices for agricultural goods, hydrocarbons, and minerals.

In 2012, coca production in Colombia amounted to 0.2% of Colombia's overall GDP and 3% of Colombia's GDP related to the agricultural sector. The great majority of coca cultivation takes place in the departments of Putumayo, Caquetá, Meta, Guaviare, Nariño, Antioquia, and Vichada.

The Villa Tunari Massacre was a 27 June 1988 mass murder committed by UMOPAR troops in response to a protest by coca-growing peasants (cocaleros) in the town of Villa Tunari in Chapare Province, Bolivia. The cocalero movement had mobilized since late May 1988 in opposition to coca eradication under Law 1008, then on the verge of becoming law. According to video evidence and a joint church-labor investigative commission, UMOPAR opened fired on unarmed protesters, at least two of whom were fatally shot, and many of whom fled to their deaths over a steep drop into the San Mateo River. The police violence caused the deaths of 9 to 12 civilian protesters, including three whose bodies were never found, and injured over a hundred. The killings were followed by further state violence in Villa Tunari, Sinahota, Ivirgarzama, and elsewhere in the region, including machine gun fire, beatings, and arrests.

Narcotics in Bolivia, South America, is a subject that primarily involves the coca crop, used in the production of the drug, cocaine. Trafficking and corruption have been two of the most prominent negative side-effects of the illicit narcotics trade in Bolivia and the country's government has engaged in negotiations with the United States (US) as result of the industry's ramifications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illegal drug trade in Latin America</span>

The illegal drug trade in Latin America concerns primarily the production and sale of cocaine and cannabis, including the export of these banned substances to the United States and Europe. The coca cultivation is concentrated in the Andes of South America, particularly in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia; this is the world's only source region for coca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coca in Bolivia</span>

Coca has been cultivated in medium-altitude parts of the Bolivian Andes since at least the Inca era, primarily in the Yungas north and east of La Paz. Cultivation expanded substantially in the 1980s into the Chapare region of Cochabamba and some production flowed into the international cocaine market. The US-backed efforts to criminalize and eradicate coca as part of the War on Drugs were met by the cocalero movement's growing capacity to organize. Violence between drug police and the Bolivian armed forces on one side and the movement on the other occurred episodically between 1987 and 2003. The cocaleros became an increasingly important political force during this period, co-founding the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples party. Coca growers from both the Yungas and the Chapare have advocated for policies of "social control" over coca growing, maintaining a pre-set maximum area of cultivation as an alternative to drug war policies. In 2005, cocalero union leader Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia. Morales has pursued a combined policy of legalizing coca production in the Chapare and Yungas and eradication of the crop elsewhere.

Colombia has a high crime rate due to being a center for the cultivation and trafficking of cocaine. The Colombian conflict began in the mid-1960s and is a low-intensity conflict between Colombian governments, paramilitary groups, crime syndicates, and left-wing guerrillas such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN), fighting each other to increase their influence in Colombian territory. Two of the most important international actors that have contributed to the Colombian conflict are multinational companies and the United States.

Crime in Peru has steadily decreased since the 2010s and into the 2020s. Peru's main indicators of crime are the homicide rate and the victimization rate; the victimization rate dropped from forty percent in 2011 to under twenty five percent in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Ecuador</span> Overview of criminal activities and law enforcement in Ecuador

Crime in Ecuador is investigated by the Ecuadorian police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in Guyana</span>

Crime in Guyana is investigated by Guyana's police.

References

  1. 1 2 "Intentional Homicide Victims | dataUNODC". dataunodc.un.org. Retrieved 2021-02-14.
  2. 1 2 Global Study on Homicide. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2013.
  3. 1 2 Ledebur, K.; Youngers, C. (2013). "From Conflict to Collaboration: An Innovative Approach to Reducing Coca Cultivation in Bolivia". Stability: International Journal of Security and Development. 2 (1): 9. doi: 10.5334/sta.aw .
  4. "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016". www.state.gov. Retrieved 2018-02-24.
  5. "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016". www.state.gov. Retrieved 2018-02-24.
  6. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-02-17. Retrieved 2015-06-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)