Bolivia and Brazil Double Security

Diálogo

01/01/2012

Celso Amorim, Brazil’s minister of defense [THE ASSOCIATED PRESS]

The governments of Bolivia and Brazil agreed in October 2011 to carry out joint military operations against drug trafficking along their border of more than 3,000 kilometers.

Bolivia is the third largest producer of cocaine after Colombia and Peru. Bolivian traffickers export much of the drug to the Brazilian territory. The defense ministers from both nations, Celso Amorim of Brazil and Ruben Saavedra of Bolivia, signed a memorandum of understanding for military cooperation in La Paz.

Brazil has conducted surveillance operations on its borders with Colombia and Peru, and is planning similar operations with Bolivia. Bolivian military will be invited as observers to military exercises to better prepare Brazilian joint practices scheduled for early 2012.

Sources: Infolatam, EFE