Bolivia’s high court authorizes extradition of former anti-drug chief to the US

The Supreme Court of Justice of Bolivia on Wednesday approved the “immediate” extradition to the United States of a former anti-narcotics chief accused of smuggling cocaine to that country, in a rare ruling in the Andean nation.

Maximiliano Dávila, 59, a former police colonel, was in charge of the fight against drugs in the final stage of the Evo Morales government for nine months in 2019, facing the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking (FELCN ).

A few years later, in 2022, the US government revealed that Dávila was accused by that country’s justice system of using his position as director of the FELCN to allegedly protect planes used to transport cocaine to the United States. He also assured that Dávila was involved in money laundering and drug trafficking before and during his leadership in the organization.

The United States presented the documentation for Dávila’s extradition for crimes related to drug trafficking. “After reviewing the documentation and the corresponding evidence, it has been determined to proceed immediately with the extradition” of Dávila, the president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Marco Jaimes, reported on Wednesday.

Dávila’s defense assured the day before that he will inform the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the decision. “There is a serious violation of human rights, which in this case of the extradition of Colonel Dávila,” said his defense lawyer, Manolo Rojas.

In February 2022, the United States Department of State announced a reward of up to five million dollars for anyone who provides information that helps bring Dávila, who has repeatedly denied the accusations against him, to justice.

However, a month earlier, at the beginning of 2022, Dávila had already been arrested in his country and since then he has remained in a prison in the center of La Paz, the seat of the Bolivian government.

The Andean country has not had a United States ambassador since 2008, when the Morales government expelled Washington’s ambassador in La Paz. In response, the US government did the same with the Bolivian ambassador in his country.

The decision made by the Bolivian justice system is not very frequent; In 1995, Colonel Faustino Rico Toro was extradited from Bolivia to stand trial for cocaine trafficking in the United States, opposition congressman Saúl Lara told The Associated Press. Rico Toro was appointed head of the Special Force to Fight Drug Trafficking in February 1991 by then-president Jaime Paz Zamora.

In 2011, the Bolivian anti-drug chief, René Sanabria, was also tried in the United States for carrying 144 kilos of cocaine; However, his extradition was not made from Bolivia, but from Panama, where he had been detained.

In 2019, afterMorales’ resignationDávila was removed by the interim government of Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020). His last public position was that of departmental commander of the police in the central region of Cochabamba, which he held from November 2020 to March 2021, in the government of Luis Arce, a former Morales ally.

The Justice decision comes in the midst of a strong dispute within the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) – the ruling party – for control of which supporters of Arce and Morales are fighting. “Dávila must reveal his drug trafficking accomplices in the United States,” Senator Virginia Velasco, who is close to Arce, told the media.

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