Unity and mobilization of the Bolivian nation to end the narco-state

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
October 17, 2026

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Twenty-three years ago, the coup d’état of October 17, 2003, began the destruction of Bolivia, the Republic, democracy, social morality, and the economy; the establishment of a narco-state; and the instigation of conflict among Bolivians to liquidate the «Bolivian Nation.» The actions to destroy Bolivia were publicly announced in the «October Agenda,» which established as its central objectives: a constituent assembly, nationalization of hydrocarbons, free cultivation of coca, and the persecution of democratic political leaders and parties.

Implementing the October agenda with more crimes, the constituent assembly, expressly prohibited by articles 230 to 233 of the Political Constitution of the State (1967/94), perpetrated falsifications in law 2410 of August 8, 2002, law 2631 of February 24, 2004 and law 3941 of October 21, 2008, to which they added the massacres of La Calancha in Sucre, Cochabamba, El Porvenir in Pando and the Hotel Las Américas in Santa Cruz, with murders, persecution, political prisoners and exiles.

They imposed by violence and maintain by fear the “constitution of the plurinational state” which is NULL by mandate of article 31 of the Constitution of the Republic: “The acts of those who usurp functions that do not belong to them are null, as well as the acts of those who exercise jurisdiction or power that does not emanate from the law”; and by article 229 which mandates: “The principles, guarantees and rights recognized by this Constitution cannot be altered by the laws that regulate their exercise nor do they need prior regulation for their fulfillment.”

To try to justify the crimes with which they overthrew the Constitutional President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, they called the sedition and conspiracy with international intervention a “gas war”, and carried out the so-called “nationalization of hydrocarbons” which only consisted of liquidating the productive capacity, and it turned out that “the gas war was to leave Bolivia without gas”.

The free cultivation of coca, the base of cocaine, agreed upon in the October agenda, was implemented in disregard of international anti-narcotics agreements. The DEA was expelled, along with the dictatorships of Venezuela and Ecuador, and Law 1008 was repealed. The Plurinational Constitution transformed Bolivia into a narco-state. A narco-state is defined as “a country whose political institutions are significantly influenced by the power and wealth of drug trafficking, whose government officials, protected by their powers and influence, are also members of illegal drug trafficking networks, and whose security forces are ineffective in combating drug trafficking…”.

Through assassinations, persecution, false accusations, imprisonment, and exile of democratic leaders, they replaced the rule of law with state terrorism and, with «infamous laws» based on the plurinational constitution, they institutionalized the violation of human rights and the «situation of defenselessness» that we Bolivians suffer.

By falsifying the existence of 36 nations in Bolivia, they imposed the plurinational model—applied in Venezuela by Chávez, Ecuador by Correa, and rejected in Chile—to destroy the “Bolivian Nation” forged as a historical result of the Chaco War. Bolivia is not plurinational; it is pluricultural. We Bolivians are a single nation founded on unity in diversity, resisting the transnational intervention of 21st-century socialism that has transformed Bolivia into a satellite dictatorship of Castro-Chavismo.

Objective reality proves that the plurinational narco-state attacks Bolivians every day. There is no solution to the economic crisis with the constitution of the narco-state; there will be no citizen security with the country occupied by national and transnational criminal organizations; we will have no legal security with prosecutors and judges who owe their positions to the narco-state system; there is no sovereignty with the «narco-republic» in the Cochabamba tropics under the command of drug kingpin Evo Morales, where the government does not exist; it is not possible to fight corruption from within corruption.

Bolivia’s fate as a plurinational narco-state is the same as that of the people of Cuba and Venezuela: misery and the disintegration of families, society, politics, and territory. The current poverty and misery of Bolivians, which are constantly worsening, demonstrate this.

The mandate of the Bolivian people in the 2025 elections is for change: to end the plurinational narco-state by restoring the Republic and democracy to confront and end the crisis. The current president has only two options: to continue being the head of the plurinational narco-state with its constitution, infamous laws, system of impunity, and absence of all elements of democracy; or to be the President of the Republic of Bolivia, defending the Bolivian Nation with a Republic and democracy. So far, everything indicates that he has opted for the continuation of the regime that attacks the Bolivian Nation.

The geopolitical shift in the Americas signals the withdrawal of organized crime from politics. It means removing the dictatorial power that oppresses the people, the power that sustains the narco-states that have established themselves and threaten the security of democracies. Without security, there are no freedoms or progress. This is the favorable international factor, but a national strategy with timely and decisive actions is needed—very difficult and insufficient under the current conditions in Bolivia, where the executive branch only holds partial control of the government, while real power remains in the hands of the plurinational narco-state.

The strategy Bolivia needs is the mobilization of the Bolivian nation and the end of the narco-state. We will generate a process of national unity and mobilization around the urgent objective of reclaiming the homeland. The «class alliance» that was the basis for the formation of the Bolivian nation is fundamental but insufficient because the creators and sustainers of the narco-state have multiplied the axes of confrontation. We will organize a «Great Bolivian Alliance,» of the Bolivian nation, which, in addition to social classes, will unite regions, cultures, generations, ethnicities, genders, political parties, leaders, peasants, businesspeople, neighbors, legitimate organizations, and all national expressions against the fascist interventionism that, through false social movements, shock troops, pseudo-unionism, and crime, has divided and subjugated Bolivians.

Unite and mobilize the nation in a Great Bolivian Alliance to end the fractured country that Bolivia is today. The confrontation between Bolivians, which is the foundation of the narco-state, must end. The oligarchic, racist, and discriminatory groups that are part of the narco-state will bring it down. It is about defeating the crime that holds political power in order to overcome poverty and underdevelopment, which are its tools of domination.

The goal is to recover the homeland by restoring the Republic, democracy, and normalcy to the lives of Bolivians, to end the plurinational narco-state, and for that there are at least four essential actions:

1. To recover the principles and values ​​of the Bolivian Nation, of civilization and democracy, and social morality. Freedom, the rule of law, freedom of association, the separation and independence of public powers, free and fair elections based on universal suffrage as an expression of popular sovereignty, private property, free enterprise, education, the right to freely express ideas… to reclaim the future.

2. Repeal the laws of the narco-state. The constitution of the plurinational narco-state is null and void, and there are also infamous laws that violate human rights and national sovereignty. These will be abolished with laws based on freedom and national interest.

3. There can be no impunity. All Bolivians must remember that it is effort, study, and work that produce success, not crime.

4. Remove organized crime from politics. No more politics used to grant impunity.

In a great Bolivian alliance, united and in motion as a Bolivian Nation we will do it.

October 17, 2026

Published in Spanish by infobae.com Saturday October 17, 2026

Translated from Spanish by; Edgar L. Terrazas, member of the American Translators Association, ATA # 234680.

Published in Spanish by Infobae.com Sunday October 17, 2026