Bolivia’s top court says its former anti-drug chief can be extradited to the US on drug charges

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s highest court on Wednesday approved the extradition to the United States of a former anti-narcotics chief on charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the U.S., a rare ruling against a top security official in the Andean nation whose relations with Washington have been strained for decades.

The decision, which cannot be appealed, caps the rapid downfall of Maximiliano Dávila-Perez, 59, Bolivia’s top drug cop in 2019 under former leftist President Evo Morales, the first Indigenous president of Bolivia who became somewhat of a global anti-imperialist icon for kicking out the U.S. ambassador and Drug Enforcement Administration in 2008 for allegedly inciting the opposition.

A former police colonel, Dávila-Perez was indicted in 2022 in New York on federal charges of conspiring to import cocaine to the U.S. and possessing machine guns. The indictment accused Dávila-Perez of leveraging his position to provide top-level protection to cargo planes transporting cocaine through third countries for distribution in the U.S.

The Justice and State Departments also offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his conviction. The former official has denied the charges.

Bolivia’s Supreme Court of Justice announced it was granting a formal U.S. request for Dávila-Perez to be extradited on drug conspiracy charges. The U.S. State Department and Department of Justice did not publicly comment on the announcement.

“After reviewing the documentation and the corresponding evidence, it has been determined to proceed immediately with Dávila’s extradition,” said Marco Jaimes, the top court’s president.

Inside Bolivia, Dávila-Perez faces money laundering charges. Bolivian authorities arrested him in 2022 as he was allegedly fleeing to Argentina, hauling him to jail in the capital of La Paz where he now remains.

Dávila-Perez led the anti-narcotics agency in Bolivia for the final nine months of Morales’ almost 14-year presidency, which ended abruptly in November 2019. The powerful former coca farmer resigned as street protests erupted after the announcement that he had won re-election to an unprecedented fourth term.

The interim government of Jeanine Áñez, which took power following Morales’ ouster, sacked Dávila-Perez.

But he returned to the government under President Luis Arce, Morales’ former economy minister and preferred candidate in the 2020 elections.

Before his arrest, Dávila-Perez served for a year as police commander in Bolivia’s central region of Cochabamba, a key hub of the country’s coca-leaf production.

Despite uneasy relations, no ambassadors for years and limited diplomatic activity, an extradition treaty between Bolivia and the U.S. has been in force since 1995.

This is only the second time in Bolivian history that authorities approved the extradition of a former military officer or government official to the U.S., said Saul Lara, an opposition lawmaker and ex-foreign minister.

The first was in 1995, when Col. Faustino Rico Toro, a former interior minister close to brutal Bolivian dictator Luis Garcia Meza, was handed over to U.S. authorities in Miami on cocaine trafficking charges.

Lawyers for Dávila-Perez vowed to challenge the extradition.

“This is a serious violation of human rights,” said defense attorney Manolo Rojas, promising that he would raise the case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an organ of the Organization of American States, of which the U.S. is a founding member.

Bolivia’s court decision comes as a fierce rivalry escalates between current President Arce and former President Morales escalates, tearing at the ruling Movement Toward Socialism party.

Although Morales insists he has nothing to do with Dávila-Perez, Arce’s supporters have sought to portray the charges against his former minister as a further blow to the political career of the ex-president who seeks to run in presidential elections next year despite a court ban.

“In the United States, the former anti-drug czar will surely be able to reveal who his accomplices are. Perhaps it is Evo,” said Senator Virginia Velasco, referring to Morales without providing evidence.

Associated Press, The Associated Press