In his first speech as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, the president of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, delivered a direct and forceful message: the State must "recover sovereignty throughout the entire national territory," even in those areas where military and police authority "can't be present." The statement, made at an event in the city of Sucre, was interpreted as a clear allusion to the coca-growing region of Chapare, in Cochabamba, an enclave where the political and territorial power of the former president who governed from 2006 to 2019 is still concentrated and who today remains entrenched with his followers.
"You are defenders of our borders, but unfortunately there are territories within the homeland where we do not have sovereignty," Paz warned before the military high command.
"We must recover sovereignty over territories where our Armed Forces and the Bolivian Police can't be present," he insisted.
The president emphasized that "no one is above the law or the homeland," and recalled that his mandate comes from the popular will, which grants him "the authority to enforce the law and command." "There are no owners of the territory here, there are no owners of regions. Bolivians must have the freedom to walk the land without anyone preventing them from being in a place because they claim it as their own," he stressed.
Paz's reference has a specific name and geography: Cochabamba, where the former head of state has taken refuge since September of last year, after an arrest warrant was issued against him in January. The Prosecutor's Office accuses him of the crime of aggravated human trafficking, in a case that shook Bolivian politics. According to the investigation, the former president allegedly impregnated a 16-year-old minor in 2016, when he was 58 years old and serving as president. The girl's birth certificate—which would be the daughter of both—constitutes the central evidence in the judicial file.
Far from denying the facts, the accused merely argued that the process "serves political interests" and that "without a victim there is no crime." Meanwhile, his followers formed security rings around the coca-growing area, preventing the justice system from acting. During the previous government, authorities justified their inaction out of fear of provoking clashes with militias loyal to the former president.
