La Corporación ("The Corporation"), also known as the Santa Ana Cartel, was a Bolivian

drug cartel A drug cartel is a criminal organization composed of independent drug lords who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the illegal drug trade. Drug cartels form with the purpose of controlling the supply of the i ...

and criminal organization, headed in the 1970s and 1980s by notorious drug lord

Roberto Suárez Gómez Roberto Suárez Gómez (January 8, 1932 – July 20, 2000), also known as the King of Cocaine, was a Bolivian drug lord and trafficker who played a major role in the expansion of cocaine trafficking in Bolivia. In his prime, Suárez made $400 mi ...

, known as the "King of Cocaine". "La Corporación" was founded in the 1970s by several

drug traffickers The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types ...

and transnational criminals. After the 1980 coup d'état, "La Corporación" received political protection from the Bolivian military dictatorship, effectively making Bolivia a

narco-state Narco-state (also narco-capitalism or narco-economy) is a political and economic term applied to countries where all legitimate institutions become penetrated by the power and wealth of the illegal drug trade. The term was first used to descr ...

, and became one of the largest

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

producers in the world. They were allied with several Mexican and Colombian drug cartels and had a notable presence in

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; ), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River (Bolivia), Pirai River in the eastern Tropical ...

History

In the 1970s, Suárez created "La Corporación" and began hiring various Bolivian coca producers, becoming one of the largest cocaine producers in the country. Because of the relationship with Suárez and

Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician who was the founder and leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed the "King of Cocaine", Escobar was one of the wealthie ...

, "La Corporación" became a major supplier to the

Medellín Cartel The Medellín Cartel () was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia, that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered to be the first major ...

. Drugs were smuggled from the cocaine labs in the Bolivian Amazon to Colombia, selling at $9,000 per kilo. On July 17, 1980, a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

overthrew President

Lidia Gueiler Tejada Lidia Gueiler Tejada (28 August 1921 – 9 May 2011) was a Bolivian politician who served as the 56th president of Bolivia on an interim basis from 1979 to 1980. She was Bolivia's first female Head of State, and the second female head of state ...

, replaced by her cousin

Luis García Meza Tejada Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

. The event became known as the "Cocaine Coup" because it was reportedly backed by criminals and drug traffickers, including Suárez and other members of "La Corporación". Shortly after the coup, drug traffickers received political protection and cocaine production dramatically increased in Bolivia. According to members of the

Reagan administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...

, the cartel was making an annual income of more than $400 million and was backed by several right-wing death squads. Ex-DEA agent Michael Levine once accused the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

of facilitating multiple Latin American drug cartels, most notably "La Corporación". After Suárez's arrest in 1988, "La Corporación" was headed by his nephew Jorge Roca Suarez, who continued to smuggle drugs into the United States and began a major drug-trafficking operation in Southern California until his arrest in 1990.

Known members and associates

- founder and leader * Jorge Roca Suarez - second-in-command, currently serving 30 years for drug trafficking * Sonia Sanjinez De Atala - drug trafficker, known as the "Queen of Cocaine", currently under a witness protection * Luis Arce Gómez - ex-Minister of the Interior, found guilty of human rights violations and drug trafficking, sentenced to 30 years imprisonment *

Klaus Barbie Nikolaus Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German officer of the ''Schutzstaffel'' and ''Sicherheitsdienst'' who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortu ...

- Suárez's head of security, former

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corporacion, La Organizations established in the 1970s 1970s establishments in Bolivia Organizations disestablished in 1990 1990 disestablishments in Bolivia Drug cartels in Bolivia Transnational organized crime